
Cfass T" 'i' ^ 

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MEMOIR 



ROGER WIIitlAMS. 



FAC SIMILE OF THE HAyTnVPdTni& 

(D]F m(ij)^]E3^ i-yirrj,xai^i§ . 

I h/jitkJ p\ '1/1 ttDoaannit viiOt-u ifi If 77 






HI E M O I R 



OP 



ROGER WILLIAMS, 



THE 



FOUNDER OF THE STATE 



OF 



RHODE-ISLAND. 



BY JAMES D.' KNOWLES, 

PROFESSOR or PASTORAL DUTIES IN THE NEWTON THEOLOGICAL 
INSTITUTION. 



•Roger Williams justly claims the honor of having been the first legislator in the 
world, in its latter ages, that fully and effectually provided for and established a 
full, free and absolute liberty of conscience." Governor Hopkins. 



BOSTON: 

LINCOLN, EDMANDS AND CO. 
1834. 



"^2 
■L07g5 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1833, 

BY JAMES D. KNOWLES, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



Lewis & Penniman, Printers. 
Bromfield-street. 



TO THE 



(E^iti^tnu of mJiotre^Ki^la^titr, 



THIS VOLUME 



IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY 



THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



The citizens of the United States have sometimes been 
ridiculed, for an alleged propensity to please their imagi- 
nations with romantic visions concerning the future glory 
of their country. They boast, it is said, not of what the 
nation has been, nor of what it is, but of what it will be. 
The American faculty, it is affirmed, is anticipation, not 
memory. 

If the truth of this charge were admitted, it might be 
replied, that the 'proper motion' of the youthful imagina- 
tion — in states as well as in individuals — is towards the 
future. It springs forward, with buoyant wing, forgetting 
the past, and disregarding the present, in the eagerness of 
its desire to reach fairer scenes. It is the instinct of our 
nature, the irrepressible longing of the immortal soul for 
something higher and better. It is never extinguished, 
though frequent disappointments abate its ardor, and long 
experience confirms the testimony of revelation, that per- 
fect happiness is sought in vain on earth. In mature age, 
therefore, reason has corrected the errors of the imagina- 
tion, and the old man looks backward to his early years, 
as the happiest period of his life, and praises the men and 



PREFACE. 



the scenes of his youthful days, as far surpassing those 
which he now sees around him.* 

Most nations are impelled, by the same principle, 
to recur to some past epoch in their history, as the pe- 
riod of their greatest glory. There is little in the pros- 
pect of the future to excite their hopes. The adherents 
to old institutions dread the progress of that spirit of inno- 
vation, which has already overthrown many of them, and 
which threatens speedy ruin to the rest. And the patriot, 
who is striving to raise his country to the enjoyment of 
liberty and happiness, foresees too many obstacles, too 
much fierce strife, suffering and bloodshed, to permit him 
to contemplate the future without anxiety. 

It is the happiness of America, that almost every thing 
in her condition invites her to look forward with hope. 
Her perfect freedom,! her rapid progress, the elastic energy 
of her national character, the boundless extent of her ter- 
ritory, her situation, far from the contentions of European 
nations, and safe from the dangers both of their friendship 
and of their hostility, all awaken and justify the confident 
hope, that she is destined to reach a height of prosperity 
and power, which no other nation, of ancient or modern 
times, has attained. 

But if Americans were so prone to look forward, that 
they forgot the past, it would certainly be a fault, which 
would deserve rebuke. Bright as the future may be, the 
past can present scenes, on which the American may gaze 
with pleasure, and from which he should draw lessons of 
wisdom and incitements to patriotism. Passing by the 
prosperous course of our history, since the adoption of the 

" '' Laudator temporis acti, 
Se piiero, castigator censorque minorum." 

Horace de Arte Poet. 1. 173-4. 
t It is mortifying and painful, tliat truth compels us to except any 
persons among us from this remark. 



PREFACE. IX 

Constitution ; not pausing to contemplate the formation of 
that Constitution, though it was one of the most glorious 
achievements of wisdom and national virtue ; looking be- 
yond the unparalleled revolution itself; the character and 
actions of the men who laid the foundations of this country 
deserve the careful study, and must attract the admiration, 
of every true-hearted American. The motives, the policy, 
the personal qualities of the founders ; their fervent piety, 
their courage and patience, their unwavering constancy, 
their calm wisdom, their love of learning, and their thirst 
for liberty, entitle those venerable men to the affection 
and gratitude of every succeeding generation. Their 
faults we may now see more clearly than their contempo- 
raries ; but those faults were, for the most part, the ex- 
cesses of their virtues, the errors of wise heads and pure 
hearts, whose piety sometimes became austere, and whose 
conscientious love of truth occasionally betrayed them into 
intolerance. There is no stain upon their personal char- 
acter ; and the American may point, with grateful pleasure, 
to the bright names of Winslow, Winthrop, Hooker, Penn, 
Baltimore, Oglethorpe, and their associates, as among the 
choicest treasures of his country. 

Among these names, that sense of justice, which event- 
ually triumphs over temporary prejudice and wrong, has 
already placed that of Roger Williams. Long misunder- 
stood and misrepresented, he was excluded from his appro- 
priate place among the chief founders and benefactors of 
New-England. The early historians, Morton, Mather, 
Hubbard, and even Winthrop, spoke harshly of his charac- 
ter. His principles, both political and religious, were 
offensive to the first generations ; and it is not strange, 
that he was viewed and treated as a fanatical heresiarch in 
religion, and a factious disturber of the state. 

Later writers have treated his memory with more re- 
spect ; and we might quote many honorable testimonies to 



X PREFACE. 

his principles and his character. But no extended memoir 
of his life has ever before been published. It would not 
be difficult to assign reasons for this neglect. The want 
of materials, and the contradictory accounts of various 
writers, were sufficient to deter his friends from the under- 
taking, and a lingering prejudice against him prevented 
others. The attention of some able writers has, neverthe- 
less, been drawn to the subject. Dr. Belknap designed to 
give to the life of Roger Williams a place in his American 
Biography, and he made application to several persons in 
Rhode-Island for materials, but without success. It was 
announced, a few years since, that Robert Southey, Esq. 
intended to write the life of Mr. Williams. He probably 
relinquished the plan, for the same reason. The Rev. Mr. 
Greenwood, of Boston, formed the design of preparing a 
memoir, at the suggestion, I believe, of Mr. Southey. Mr. 
Greenwood collected many valuable materials, but the 
failure of his health, and other causes, induced him to 
abandon the undertaking.* 

My attention was directed to the subject, in 1829, by 
hearing the Rev. Dr. Sharp, of Boston, pronounce, with 
his usual eloquence and true love of freedom, a eulogium 
on the character of Roger Williams. I soon afterwards 
suggested to him, that the life of Mr. Williams ought to be 
better known. He urged me to undertake the office of 
biographer, and many other friends concurred in the re- 
quest. I consented, having learned that Mr. Greenwood 
had resolved to relinquish the design. I made an appli- 

* Mr. Savage, in his edition of Winthrop, (vol. i. p. 42) excited, 
by the following note, a hope, which was unhappily disappointed : 
'• Deficiency in all former accounts of this great, earliest asserter of 
religious freedom, will, we may hope, soon be supplied by a gentle- 
man, whose elegance and perspicuity of style are already known. 
Several quires of original letters of Williams' have been seen by me, 
transcribed by or for the Rev. Mr. Greenwood, of this city." 



PREFACE. XI 

cation to him, however, to be informed of his real purposes. 
With the most generous politeness, he placed at my dis- 
posal all the materials which he had collected. Among 
them were between twenty and thirty unpublished letters, 
copied from the originals, which were kindly lent to him 
by the Hon. Thomas L. Winthrop. These letters form a 
valuable part of this volume. 

In my further search for information, I soon discovered, 
that many persons, well acquainted with our early history, 
knew very little of Roger Williams. In the books, I found 
almost every important fact, concerning him, stated differ- 
ently. I was obliged to gather hints from disconnected 
documents, and to reconcile contradictory assertions ; and 
in fine, my labor often resembled that of the miner, who 
sifts large masses of sand, to obtain a few particles of gold. 
I have spared neither toil nor expense to obtain materials. - 
I have endeavored to make the book as complete and ac- 
curate as possible. It has cost me much time, and a 
degree of labor, which no one can estimate, who has not 
been engaged in similar investigations. 

I have, however, received much aid from several indi- 
viduals. Besides Mr. Greenwood, my thanks are especially 
due to the venerable Nestor of Providence, Moses Brown, 
and to John Rowland, Esq. Other gentlemen are entitled 
to my gratitude, whom it would give me pleasure to name. 
I have, too, derived great assistance from several books. 
Among these I ought to mention Mr. Backus' History, 
from which I have copied a number of valuable documents, 
and gathered important information. Mr. Savage's admi- 
rable edition of Winthrop's Journal has been my chief 
guide, in narrating the early events of Mr. Williams' his- 
tory, after his arrival in this country. From the valuable 
Annals of Dr. Holmes, and from the Library and the Col- 
lections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, I have 
derived important aid. 



Xll PREFACE. 

I have strongly felt the want of a history of Rhode- 
Island. I have been obliged to relate many historical 
facts, which I have collected, in various ways, at the 
hazard of mistake and deficiency. It has been somewhat 
mortifying to me, as a native of Rhode-Island, to be obliged 
to rely on the writers of Massachusetts and Plymouth, for 
facts concerning the history of Rhode-Island, which could 
not, otherwise, be ascertained. While all the other New- 
England States, and indeed most of the States of the 
Union, have histories, it is hoped that Rhode-Island will 
not much longer be content to bear the reproach, of being 
indebted to other States for her knowledge of her own 
history. I am glad to learn, that the papers of the late 
Theodore Foster, Esq. are now in the possession of the 
Rhode-Island Historical Society. I hope that the Society 
will immediately appoint some competent person to prepare 
a history of the State. The Legislature ought to aid in 
procuring the requisite documents from England, and in 
defraying other necessary expenses. The State has no 
reason to be ashamed of her history. She owes it to her- 
self to record it truly. 

The want of such a history has induced me to insert in 
this volume several documents which cannot readily be 
found. I am not aware of any Rhode-Island publication, 
except a file of newspapers, in which a copy of the first 
charter is contained. The second charter is not easily to 
be procured. Very few, probably, of the citizens possess 
a copy. 

It may, indeed, be objected to this book, that it is en- 
cumbered with documents. But I have desired to furnish 
the reader with the means of forming an acquaintance 
with Mr. Williams, by a perusal of his own letters, and 
other writings. These are never common-place. They 
are all marked with the impress of his character. The 
numerous authorities have be^i added, in order that if I 



PREFACE. Xlll 

have committed mistakes, the reader might have the means 
of correcting them. It would be strange, if, amid so much 
contradiction and confusion, I have fallen into no errors. 
I can only say, that I have anxiously labored to learn the 
truth ; and I shall be thankful for any suggestions, which 
may tend to make the book more accurate and useful. 

A few of the notes are marked " G." They were ap- 
pended by Mr. Greenwood to the documents which he 
loaned to me, and I have taken the liberty to copy them, 
as valuable illustrations. 

Roger Williams lived in an eventful period, and a me- 
moir of him must contain many references to contemporary 
personages and events. I have endeavored to speak of 
these with candor and kindness. The character and 
actions of the Pilgrim fathers have necessarily come under 
review. I have been obliged, occasionally, to censure ; 
but it has been a source of pleasure, that the more I inves- 
tigated their actions, the more deep and sincere was my 
veneration for those excellent men. It is due to them to 
point out those errors in their conduct, which they, were 
they now living, would lament and condemn. 

The position in which this country is placed, as the great 
exemplar of civil and religious liberty, makes it inexpress- 
ibly important, that the true principles on which this liberty 
rests, should be thoroughly understood. A responsibility 
lies on the citizens of this country, which no other nation 
ever sustained. Here it is to be demonstrated, that man 
can govern himself, and that religion can walk abroad in 
her own dignity and unsullied loveliness, as the messen- 
ger of God, armed with his authority, and wielding his 
omnipotence ; that she can speak to the hearts of men 
with a voice of power, which owes no part of its emphasis 
to the force of human laws ; that she, instead of leaning 
on the arm of the magistrate for support, can enter the 
halls of legislation, the cabinets of rulers, and the courts 



XIV PREFACE. 

of justice, to spread out her laws, and proclaim her eternal 
sanctions. If civil liberty fail here, or if religion be over- 
whelmed with error or worldliness, the great cause of hu- 
man happiness will suffer a disastrous check. It is believ- 
ed, that a better knowledge of the principles of Roger 
Williams will have a salutary tendency, and that the 
publication of a memoir of his life is opportune, at this 
crisis, when, both in America and in Europe, the public 
mind is strongly agitated by questions which affect both 
the civil and the religious rights of men. If this book 
shall contribute, in the slightest degree, to the promotion 
of truth and freedom, I shall rejoice, and praise Him, who 
has restored my health, and given me leisure to finish the 
work. 

A word or two of explanation, on certain points, may 
be necessary. In the quotations from old documents, I 
have altered the orthography conformably to present 
usage. One reason for this course was, that scarcely any 
writer was consistent with himself, especially in relation to 
proper names. There is, too, nothing in orthography to 
mark the style of a particular writer, and it may, conse- 
quently, be altered, without affecting the idiomatic pecul- 
iarities of his composition, while the book is freed from 
the uncouth forms of words spelled according to antiquated 
fashions. 

The Indian names have been reduced to a uniform or- 
thography, agreeably to what was believed to be the best 
form. They are spelled, in a most perplexing variety of 
ways, by different authors. Roger Williams himself some- 
times spelled the same name differently in the same docu- 
ment. 

I have endeavored to arrange the dates according to the 
old style. Many mistakes have been committed, by vari- 
ous authors, from a neglect of this point. Before 1752, 
the year was computed to commence on the 25th of March, 



PREFACE. XV 

which was, accordingly, reckoned as the first month, and 
January and February were the eleventh and twelfth. 
Dates between the 1st of January and the 25th of March, 
are usually, in this book, marked with both years. Thus 
the time of Mr. Williams' arrival in America was the 5th 
of February, 1630-1. 

No portrait of Roger Williams, it is believed, is in exist- 
ence. As the best substitute, a fac-simile of his hand 
writing has been engraved, and prefixed to this volume. 
It was copied from a document, kindly furnished by Moses 
Brown. 

Ill health, and various other causes, have delayed the 
work. Further search might, perhaps, detect additional 
materials ; but my oflncial duties, and other reasons, forbid 
a longer delay. It is now respectfully commended to the 
favor of the public ; and above all, to the blessing of Him, 
without whose smile human approbation would be vain. I 
cannot, and, indeed, ought not to, be without some so- 
licitude respecting the reception of a work, on which I 
have expended so much time and labor, cheered by the 
hope, that it would serve the cause of human happiness. 
I am well aware, that it is defective in several points ; but 
it has not been in my power to make it more complete. I 
can easily anticipate objections, which will arise in some 
minds. One of these, it is probable, will be, that I have 
spoken too freely of the faults of Christians and ministers ; 
that I have unveiled scenes of intolerance and persecution, 
which the enemies of religion may view with malicious 
joy. But my reply is, that I have not alluded to such topics, 
except where my main theme compelled me to speak of 
them. I trust, that what I have said is true, and uttered in 
a respectful and kind spirit. We must not, in order to 
promote or defend religion, attempt to conceal events 
which history has already recorded, and much less to palli- 
ate conduct, which we cannot justify. Let us, rather, con- 



XVI PRE FACE. 

fess, with frankness and humility, our own faults, and those 
of our fathers ; learn wisdom from past errors ; and bring 
ourselves and others, as speedily as possible, to the adoption 
of those pure principles, by which alone Christianity can 
be sustained and diffused. The book of God records, 
among its salutary lessons, the mistakes and sins of good 
men. I have believed, that the wrong and mischievous ten- 
dency of intolerance could not be more forcibly exhibited, 
than in the conduct of our fathers. All men concede to 
them sincere piety, pure lives and conscientious upright- 
ness of purpose. How pernicious, then, must be a princi- 
ple, which could so bias the minds of such men, as to im- 
pel them to oppress, banish or put to death their fellow 
Christians ! How dangerous the principle, if, in such 
hands, its operation was so terrible ! We need not wonder 
that, under the direction of bigotry, ambition, cupidity and 
despotism, it produced the horrors of St. Bartholomew's, 
^ and the atrocities of Smithfield. The experience of New- 
I England has proved, that the best men cannot be trusted 
I with power over the conscience ; and that this power must 
be wrested from the hands of all men, and committed to 
Him who alone is competent to wield it. This volume is 
dedicated to the defence of religious liberty, both by an 
exposition of the principles of Roger Williams, and by a 
display of the evils of intolerance. If it shall thus aid in 
hastening the universal triumph of pure and undefiled re- 
ligion, my strongest desire will be accomplished. 

Kewton, December 12, 1833. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. Page 

Early life of Mr. Williams— state of religious affairs in Eng- 
land — Mr. Williams embarks for America, 21 

CHAPTER 11. 

Historical sketch — view of the condition of the country, at the 
time of Mr. Williams' arrival, 33 

CHAPTER HI. 

Mr. Williams refuses to unite with the Boston church — is in- 
vited to Salem — interference of the General Court — removes 
to Plymouth— the Indians — difficulties at Plymouth — birth of 
Mr. Williams' eldest child, 45 

CHAPTER IV. 

Returns to Salem — ministers' meetings — Court again interferes 
— the rights of the Indians — his book against the patent — 
wearing of veils — controversy about the cross in the colors, 55 

CHAPTER V. 

Proceedings which led to his banishment — freeman's oath — va- 
rious charges against him — sentence — birth of his second 
child— leaves Salem for Narraganset Bay — review of the 
causes of his banishment, 64 

CHAPTER VI. 

Numbers, condition, language, rights, &c. of the Indians in 
New England, °* 



XVlll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Mr. Williams proceeds to Seekonk — crosses the river, and 
founds the town of Providence, 100 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Purchase of lands from the Indians— division of the lands 
among the settlers, 106 

CHAPTER IX. 

Settlement of the town of Providence— Whatcheer— islands of 
Prudence, Patience, and Hope, 118 

CHAPTER X. 
Mr. Williams prevents the Indian league — war with the Pe- 
quods — their defeat and ruin, 125 

CHAPTER XI. 
Settlement on Rhode-Island commenced — Mrs. Hutchinson — 
settlement at Pawtuxet, 138 

CHAPTER XII. 

Condition of Providence — execution of three murderers of an 
Indian — birth of Mr. Williams' eldest son, 148 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Baptism of Mr. Williams — establishment of the first Baptist 
church in Providence — Mr. Williams soon leaves the church, 162 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Affairs of the Indians — birth of Mr. Williams' fourth child — 
disputes at Providence about boundaries — Committee of Ar- 
bitration — account of Samuel Gorton, 179 

CHAPTER XV. 

Birth of Mr. Williams' second son — league of the colonies — 
war between the Narragansets and Mohegans — capture and 
death of Miantinomo — Mr. Williams embarks for England, 190 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Mr. Williams' first visit to England — Key to the Indian lan- 
guages — charter — birth of Mr. Williams' youngest child — 
Bloody Tenet — he returns to America — reception at Bos- 
, ton and Providence — again aids in preventing an Indian 
war, 196 



CONTENTS. Xix 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Letters to John Winthrop — organization of the government — 
vote of money to Mr, Williams — agreement of several in- 
habitants of Providence — dissensions — Indian troubles, 206 

CHAPTER XVHI. 

Mr. Coddington — letters to John Winthrop — execution of 
Charles I. 227 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Warwick — Mr. Williams' compensation — imprisonment of John 
Clarke and Obadiah Holmes — Mr. Coddington's separate 
charter — Mr. Williams and Mr. Clarke prepare to go to 
England, 238 

CHAPTER XX. 

Mr. Williams and Mr. Clarke sail — Mr. Coddington's charter 
vacated — troubles in Rhode-Island — Mr. Williams returns — 
Sir Henry Vane — Milton — Mr. Williams endeavors to re- 
establish order — Indians — letter on religious and civil lib- 
erty, 252 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Troubles in Rhode-Island — William Harris — Quakers — severe 
laws against them in other colonies — conduct of Rhode- 
Island — Mr. Williams and Mr. Harris — Mr. Williams not 
re-elected as President, 281 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Death of Cromwell — his character — Richard Cromwell suc- 
ceeds — restoration of Charles II. — Act of Uniformity, and 
ejection of the Non-conformists — affairs in Rhode-Island — 
Indian deed— letters to Mr. Winthrop, 300 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Infant baptism — half-way covenant — laws to support religion — 
charter from Charles II. — first meeting of Assembly — Mr. 
Clarke — difficulties about boundaries — charges against Rhode- 
Island, concerning Catholics and Quakers, 315 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Mr. Williams' public services — religious habits — efforts as a 
minister — Indians — private affairs — letter to John Whipple, 32^ 



XX CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXV. 

Controversy with the Quakers — Philip's war — letters — Mr. 
Williams' death, 336 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

Mr. Williams' writings — Key — Bloody Tenet — liberty of con- 
science — Mr. Cotton's Reply — Mr. Williams' Rejoinder, 356 

CHAPTER XXVn. 

Hireling Ministry none of Christ's — the ministry — controversy 
with George Fox — other writings — character as a writer — 
his general character, 376 

Appendix, 391 



MEIMOIM. 



CHAPTER I. 



Early life of Mr. Williams — State of religious atfairs in England — 
Mr. Williams embarks for America. 

The obvious analogy between human life and a river 
has supplied the poet with similes, and the moralist with 
arguments. The resemblance of the two objects is, in this 
point, at least, worthy of notice, that their origin awakens 
the curiosity of every reflective mind. This feeling has 
impelled many travellers to a perilous search for the sources 
of the Niger and the Nile ; and it made Lewis and his as- 
sociates look, with triumphant joy, on the little rill, at the 
summit of the Rocky Mountains, which flows on, and ex- 
pands into the mighty Missouri. 

We feel a similar desire, when we survey the actions of 
a distinguished individual, to learn the incidents of his 
youth. The mind is perplexed and dissatisfied, if such a 
personage has suddenly appeared, like Manco Capac to 
the Peruvians, as if he had indeed alighted on the earth 
from the sun, or risen, like the fabled Venus, from the 
ocean. 

This curiosity has valuable uses. The instruction 
which is gathered from the lives of men is drawn, in 
great part, from a view of the steps, by which they ad- 
3 



22 M E M O I R O F 

vanced to their subsequent elevation in virtue and useful- 
ness, or to a bad eminence in crime. The character ot 
most men is formed early, and we can scarcely pronounce 
a fair judgment respecting any individual, unless we take 
into the account the circumstances, which shed a propi- 
tious or malignant influence on those early years, when 
his habits were fixed, and his principles imbibed. 

It is a subject of regret, that of the early life of Rogeii 
Williams so little is known. A few facts only have been 
preserved, and these do not rest on very certain evidence. 
It is remarkable, that in his numerous writings, there are 
no allusions to his parents, to the place of his birth and 
education, and to other points relating to his early years. 
There are, in his letters and books, but two or three inci- 
dental references to events anterior to his arrival in this 
country ; though his allusions to early occurrences after 
his emigration are very frequent. 

He was about 32 years of age when he reached our 
shores ; a period of life, when the energy of youth remains 
without its rashness, and the mind has acquired steadiness, 
without the timid caution and fixed pertinacity of old age. 
It is a period, however, when the character of most men is 
already formed. Though new situations and difficult 
exigencies may develope unexpected powers, and give 
prominence to certain traits of character, yet the mind 
commonly remains unchanged in its essential qualities. It 
was long since said by Horace, that those who cross the 
ocean pass under a new sky, but do not acquire a new 
disposition.* This was probably true of Mr. Williams ; 
and if we could trace his early history, we should undoubt- 
edly see an exhibition of the same principles and temper 
which distinguished his subsequent career. 

It may, however, be said of most of the prominent men 
among the first settlers of New England, that their history 
begins at the period of their arrival here. Our accounts 
of their early lives are very brief They were too busy to 
record their own early fortunes, and too pious to feel any 
pride in displaying their descent, their virtues, or their 
sufferings. The present and the future filled their minds ; 

* " Coelum non animum mutant, qui trans mare currunt." 

Ep. lib. i. 11. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 23 

and they seem to have felt, that the wide ocean which sep- 
arated them from the land of their fathers had effected a 
similar disjunction of their history. Of Roger Williams 
less is known than of some others, because no efforts were 
made by early biographers to collect facts concerning him. 
His opponents were more disposed to obliterate his name, 
than to record his life. His contemporary friends were 
sharers in his sufferings, and were not at leisure to relate 
his story or their own. Even the records of the church 
which he founded at Providence contain no notice of him, 
written earlier than 1775, when the Rev. John Stanford, 
a venerable minister, still living in New-York, collected 
the fugitive traditions concerning the origin of the church. 

These traditions state that Mr. Williams was born in 
Wales, in 1599.* The place of his birth, and the charac- 
ter of his parents, are not known. We may easily believe 
that he was a native of Wales, He possessed the Welch 
temperament — excitable and ardent feelings, generosity, 
courage, and firmness, which sometimes, perhaps, had a 
touch of obstinacy. It has been supposed, that he was a 
relative of Oliver Cromwell, one of whose ancestors was 
named Williams.t This conjecture has not a very solid 
basis. Roger Williams does not claim, in his writings, 
any kindred to the formidable Protector, though he repeat- 
edly alludes to his intimacy with him, and once speaks of 
a " close conference with Oliver," on the subject of Popery, 
which they both abhorred and feared. It appears, from a 
remark in one of his books, that he became pious in early 
life. " The truth is, from my childhood, now above three- 
score years, the Father of lights and mercies touched my 
soul with a love to himself, to his only begotten, the true 
Lord Jesus, to his holy Scriptures," &x.| 

That his parents were in humble life, and that his dis- 



*The records of the church say 1598, (Benedict, vol. i. p. 473) 
but this statement appears to be a mistake. Mr. Wilhams, in a let- 
ter dated July 21, 1G79, (Backus, vol. i. p. 421) said that he was 
then " near to fourscore years of age." This proves that he was not 
born in 1598, and makes it probable that the ne.xt year was the true 
time. 

t Baylies' History of Plymouth, vol. i. p. 284. See Appendix to 
this work, (A.) 

t George Fox digged out of his Burrowes, written in 1673. 



<24 :m E 51 o I P. o F 

position was pious and thoughtful, may be inferred from an 
incident which is related concerning him, and which, if 
true, had a great share in determining his future course. 
It is said, that the famous lawyer, Sir Edward Coke, ob- 
served him, one day, during public worship, taking notes 
of the discourse. His curiosity was excited, and he re- 
quested the boy to show him his notes. Sir Edward was 
so favorably impressed by the evidences of talent which 
these exhibited, that he requested the parents of young 
Williams to intrust their son to his care. He placed him, 
as the tradition runs, at the University of Oxford,* where 
he drank deeply at the fountains of learning. His writings 
testify, that his education was liberal, according to the taste 
of those times, when logic and the classics formed the 
chief objects of study at the universities. 

He afterwards commenced the study of the law, at the 
desire and under the guidance of his generous patron, who 
would naturally wish to train his pupil to the honorable 
and useful profession which he himself adorned. The 
providence of God may be seen in thus leading the mind 
of Mr. Williams to that acquaintance with the principles of 
law and government, which qualified him for his duties as 
legislator of his little colony. 

But he probably soon found that the study of the law- 
was not congenial with his taste. Theology possessed 
more attractions to a mind and heart like his. To this 
divine science he directed his attention, and received Epis- 
copal orders. It is stated, that he assumed, v/hile in Enp-- 



* Wood, in his Athenas Oxonienscs, after gfivinff an account of a 
j^entleman named Roger Williams, soys, •• I lind ajiotlier Roger Wil- 
liams, later than the former, an inhabitant of Providence, in New Eno-- 
land, and author of (1) A Key to the Laufruagc of JVeio-En<rland,'LGn- 
don,1643, oct. {2)Tlu' IlircUng Ministry none of ChrisCs. era Discourse 
of the Propagation of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, London, ]G;"2, qu. 
&c. But of what university the said Williams was, if of sjiy, I 
know not, or whether a real fanatick or Jesuit." This assertion of 
Wood renders it doubtful whether Mr. Williams was educated at 
Oxford, or elsewhere. In the absence of all evidence, it might be 
thought more probable that he received his education at Cambi-idge, 
where a large proportion of the leading Puritans v/cre educated. 
Coke himself was a graduate of Cambridge, and would probably 
prefer to place Williams there. Inquiries have been sent to Eng- 
land, for information on this point, but they have not been success- 
ful. 



R O G E R W I L L I A M S . 25 

land, the charge of a parish ; that his preaching was highly 
esteemed, and his private cliaracter revered.* 

We have thus recited the traditions which have been 
current in Rhode Island. There is undoubtedly some 
truth in them, though the story is a little romantic, and 
may have received some embellishment in its progress. 

Roger Williams entered on public life at an eventful 
period, when the national mind was strongly agitated by 
those political and religious causes, which had been slowly 
operating for many years, and which soon subverted the 
throne and the Episcopal Church. At these causes we 
can do no more than glance. 

The Reformation, in England, commenced as far back 
as the latter part of the fourteenth century, when Wick- 
litfe taught the pure doctrines of the Scriptures, and kin- 
dled a great light for the guidance of the people in 
the path to Heaven, by translating the Scriptures, for 
the first time, into the English language. He was, of 
course, denounced and persecuted by the Catholic Church, 
but his doctrines spread, and though many of his followers 
were put to death, and the utmost cruelty was practised, 
in various ways, to hinder the progress of the truth, yet 
the principles of the Reformation were extensively diffused 
in England, before Luther and his fellow laborers com- 
menced their glorious ministry. But no public blow was 
given to the papal power in England, till Henry VIII. find- 
ms. the authoritv of the Pope an obstacle to his favorite 
project of repudiating his wife Catharine and marrying 
Anne Bolevn, renounced, in 1534, his political allegiance 
to his Holiness.! The King was created, by act of Par- 



* Benedict, vol. i. p. 473-4. 

t The refusal of the Pope. Clement VII. to sanction the divorce, 
would have been honorable to him, if it had not undeniably sprung 
from political motives. He at first prepared a bull, granting Henry's 
request, but in a short time he thought it more conducive to his po- 
HticaJ interests to suppress it. and in a fit of anger against the King 
for a supposed insult, the Pope issued his sentence, prohibiting the 
divorce, and threatenino; the King with excommunication if he did 
not recognise Catharine as his wife. In six days afler. he received 
intelligence which made him earnestly desire to annul his sentence, 
but it'^was too late. His attribute of infallibility was now found 
inconvenient. He could not retract. Henry was exasperated and 

3* 



26 M E M O 1 R O F 

liament, the Head of the Church, and the powers which 
had previously been claimed and exercised by the Pope, 
were transferred to the King. But, while the papal au- 
thority was rejected, the doctrines of Popery were not 
discarded. The King was a strenuous believer in tran- 
substantiation, purgatory, sprinkling of holy Avater, invo- 
cation of saints, and other doctrines and rites of the Cath- 
olic Church. He exacted as implicit a submission to his 
will as the Pope himself Indeed, little more was yet 
gained, than the substitution of a Pope in England for a 
Pope in Rome. Henry was of a temper too despotic to 
permit him to be a friend of the Protestant religion. 
To a monarch of arbitrary principles, the spirit of Popery 
is more congenial than that of the Protestant faith. The 
Catholic system requires an unconditional submission to 
the authority of man. The first principle of Protestantism 
is implicit obedience to God alone. The decisions of 
Councils and the commands of the Pope bind the Catholic : 
the will of God, as it is uttered in the Holy Scriptures, is 
the only rule of faith and practice to the true Protestant. 

After the death of Henry, his son, Edv/ard VI. ascended 
the throne. He was a religious Prince, and a zealous 
friend of the Reformation. The Church of England was 
purified from many corruptions during his reign, a liturgy 
was compiled, and the Protestant religion made a rapid 
progress in the nation. But some relics of Popery were 
still retained, and among others, the vestments of the 
clergy. It was deemed indispensable, that the priests 
should wear the square cap, the surplice, the cope, the 
tippet, and other articles of apparel, which were in use 
among the Popish clergy. Some excellent ministers re- 
fused to wear these garments, on the ground that they 
were associated in the public mind with Popery ; were re- 
garded by many of the people with superstitious reverence, 
and ought, consequently, to be rejected with the other cor- 
ruptions from which the church had purged herself It 
was, unquestionably, very unwise to retain an appendage 



renounced his political allegiance, though, in his controversy with 
Luther, which won for him from the Pope the title of Defend- 
er of the Faith, he had argued that the primacy of the Pope was of 
<iivine right! Histoire du Concile de Trent, livre i. p. C5, Amster- 
dam edition, 1686. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 2'7 

of the old system, which tended to remind the people of 
the discarded religion, to irritate the minds of its enemies, 
while it nourished the attachment to it which some per- 
sons secretly retained, and to suggest the obvious conclu- 
sion, that as the ministers of the new religion resembled 
so nearly those of the old, the difference between the two 
systems was very small. The effect of wearing the popish 
garments was so manifestly injurious to the progress of 
truth, that the refusal to wear them was not a trivial scru- 
ple of conscience, as it may, at first sight, appear. But 
the attempt to enforce the use of them, by severe penalties, 
and by expulsion from office, was unjust ; and it led to a 
fmal separation of the Protestants themselves into Con- 
formists and Non-Conformists. 

After Edward's death, and the accession of Mary, Popery 
was restored, and scenes of barbarous cruelty and bloody 
persecution ensued, which have made the nnme of this 
Queen infamous. Many hundreds of the Protestants per- 
ished at the stake, or in prioon, and multitudes fled to 
Germany, Sv/itzerland, and other countries. 

The reign of this fierce bigot was hiippily short, and 
Elizabeth succeeded her. The Protestant religion was re- 
established, and during her long reign it gained an ascend- 
ancy which it has never since lost. Yet Elizabeth pos- 
sessed the despotic temper of her father. She had a fond- 
ness for some of the gaudy rites of Popery.* She perempto- 
rily insisted on the use of the clerical vestments, and on a 
strict conformity to all tlie other ceremonies of the church. 
The final separation of the Non-Conformists from the 
Church of England wa.s thus hastened. Those who had 
lied from England during the reign of Mary, returned, on 
the accession of Elizabeth, bringing with them an attach- 
ment to the purer rites of the Reformed Churches in Hol- 
land, Switzerland and France. Most of these exiles, and 
of the other Non-Conformists, were, nevertheless, will- 
ing to subscribe to the doctrines of the Church of Eng- 
land, and to use the liturgy, if they might be permitted 
to omit the vestments, the sign of the cross in baptism, 
and some other ceremonies. They disliked the preten- 
sions of the Bishops, and many of them preferred the 

* Elizabeth often said, thiat she hatc-cl the Puritans more than she 
did the Papists, Neal, vol. i. p. 319. 



28 



MEMOIR OF 



Presbyterian or Independent form of Church govern- 
ment. There were, too, some minor points in the liturg}'^, 
to which they objected. But had they been treated with 
Christian kindness, and allowed, in the spirit of mutual 
forbearance and charity, to neglect those forms, which they 
considered as sinful or inexpedient, they would, for the 
most part, have remained in the Episcopal Church, and 
England would have been spared the manifold crimes and 
miseries, which issued in a civil war, and drenched her 
soil with the blood of her King, and of thousands of her 
bravest sons. 

But the principles of religious liberty were then un- 
known. The Q,ueen, though for a while she treated the 
Non-Conformists with indulgence, till her power was fully 
established, soon announced to tliem her sovereign pleasure, 
that they should submit to all the ceremonies of the church. 
Severe laws were parsed by an obsequious Parliament, and 
enforced, with ready zeal, by servile Bishops. Every min- 
ister who refused to conform to all the prescribed ceremo- 
nies was liable to be deprived of his office ; and a large 
number of the ablest ministers in the nation were thus 
expelled and silenced.* In order to enforce the laws with 
the utmost rigor, a new tribunal was erected, called the 

'•■ Neal (vol. i. p. 236) g-ives the followinnr specimen of the arbitrary 
manner in which the ministers were treated. It is an account of 
the examination of the London clergy : '■ When the ministers ap- 
peared in court, Mr. Thomas Cole, a clergyman, being- placed by the 
side of the Commissioners, in priestly apparel, the Bishop's chan- 
cellor from the bench addressed them in these words : ' My masters, 
and ye ministers of London, the Council's pleasure is, that ye strictly 
keep the unity of apparel, like the man who stands here canonically 
habited with a square cap. a scholar's gown priest-like, a tippet, and 
in the church a linen surplice. Ye that will subscribe, write ^•o/o; 
those that will not subscribe, write nolo. Be brief, make no words."' 
Some of these distressed ministers subscribed for the sake of their 
families, but thirty-seven absolutely refused. They were immedi- 
ately suspended from office, and told, that unless they sliould con- 
form in three months, they should be wholly deprived of their 
livings. In 1585 and 1.58G. it was found, by a survey, that there 
were only 2000 ministers, who were able to preach, to serve 10,000 
churches. Bishop Sandys, in one of his sermons before the Queen, 
told her Majesty, that some of her subjects did not hear one sermon 
in seven years, and that their blood would be required of some one. 
Elizabeth thought three or four preachers in a county sufficient. 
Neal, vol. i. p. 359. 



R O G E R W I L L I A M S . 29 

Court of High Commission, consisting of Commissioners, 
appointed by the Queen. This Court was invested with 
power to arrest ministers in any part of the kingdom, to 
deprive them of their livings, and to fine or imprison them 
at the pleasure of the Court. *' Instead of producing wit- 
nesses in open court, to prove the charges, they assumed a 
power of administering an oath ex officio, v/hereby the pris- 
oner was obliged to answer all questions the Court should 
put to him, though never so prejudicial to his own defence. 
If he refused to swear, he was imprisoned for contempt ; 
and if he took the oath, he was convicted upon his own 
confession."* By this Protestant Inquisition, and by other 
means, one fourth of the preachers in England are said to 
have been under suspension. Numerous parishes were 
destitute of preachers, and so many were filled by illiterate 
and profligate men, that not one beneficed clergyman in 
six was capable of composing a sermon. t Thus were 
learned and pious ministers oppressed, merely for their con- 
scientious scruples about a few ceremonies, their families 
were ruined, the people were deprived of faithful teachers, 
the progress of truth was hindered, the papists were grati- 
fied, and a state of irritation was produced in the public 
mind, which led, in a succeeding reign, to the disastrous 
issue of a bloody civil war. 

Nor was the edge of this intolerance turned against the 
clergy alone. The people were rigorously required to at- 
tend regularly at the parish churches. 

Measures like these gradually alienated the affections of 
many from the Established Church, and convinced them, 
that there was no prospect of obtaining toleration, or of 
effecting a further reform in the church. They accordingly 
separated from it, and established meetings, where the cer- 
emonies were not practivsed. These Non-Conformists were 
called Puritans, a term of reproach derived from the Ca- 
thari, or Puritans, of the third century after Christ. The 
term, however, was not inappropriate, as it intimated their 
desire of a purer form of worship and discipline in the 
church. It was afterwards applied to them on account of 
the purity of their morals, and the Calvinistic cast of their 
doctrines. 

" Noal, vol. i. preface. t Neal, vol. i. preface. 



30 



MEMOIR OF 



This separation occurred in the year 1566. The storm 
of royal and ecclesiastical wrath now beat the more fiercely 
on the heads of the Puritans. The history of England, for 
the succeeding century, is a deplorable narrative of oppres- 
sion, bloodshed and indescribable misery, inflicted on men 
and women, of deep piety and pure lives, but guilty of 
claiming the rights of conscience, and choosing to worship 
God with different forms from those which the National 
Church prescribed. No man, of right feelings, can read 
Neal's History of the Puritans, without sorrow and indigna- 
tion. Every man ojght to read it, if he would understand 
the reasons why the founders of this country left their na- 
tive land, to seek an asylum in the wilderness, and if he 
would rightly estimate the great principles of religious lib- 
erty which Roger Williams maintained and defended. 

The accession of James I. excited the hopes of the Puri- 
tans. He had been educated in the principles of the Re- 
formation, and had stigmatized the service of the Church 
of England as " an evil said mass in English."* He had 
promised, that he would maintain the principles of the 
Church of Scotland while he lived. But he changed his 
principles or his policy, after he ascended the throne of 
England. He then announced the true royal creed, No 
Bishops, no King. He treated the Puritans with contempt 
and rigor, declaring that they were a sect " unable to be 
suffered in any well-governed commonwealth. "t Many of 
the Puritans, finding- their situation intolerable at home, 
left the kingdom for the continent, or turned their eyes to 
America for a refuge from persecution. 

In the midst of these scenes, Roger Williams was born 
and educated. His character impelled him to the side of 
the Puritans. His political principles were then, it is 
probable, as they were throughout his subsequent life, very 
liberal ; and were entirely repugnant to the doctrines 
which were then upheld by the court and the dignitaries 
of the church. James was an obstinate and arbitrary 
monarch, who inflexibly maintained, in theory and often in 
practice, those despotic principles, which led his son to the 
scaffold, and expelled James II. from the throne. A mind, 
like that of Williams, strong, searching and fearless, would 

" Neal, vol. ii. p. 28. t Prince, p. 107. 



R O G ti K VV 1 L L I A M S . 31 

naturally be opposed to the pretensions and policy of the 
King.* His patron, Sir Edward Coke, incurred the re- 
sentment of James, for his free principles, and his bold vin- 
dication of the rights of the people. Charles I. was, if 
possible, more arbitrary than his father, and more disposed 
to trample on the constitution, and o.i the rights of the 
people. 

The tyranny exercised by the Bishops, the severe perse- 
cution of the Puritans, and the arrogant demand of abso- 
lute submission to the National Church, were still more 
offensive to a man like Mr. Williams. His principles, as 
he afterwards expounded them, by his life and in his writ- 
ings, claimed for all men a perfect liberty of conscience, in 
reference to religion. Such principles, allied to a bold 
spirit, must have brought him into notice at such a crisis, 
and must have attracted upon his head the storm of perse- 
cution. Cotton, Hooker, and many other ministers, were 
silenced. In such times, Mr. Williams could not escape. 
If he was indeed admitted to a living, it must have been 
through the indulgence of some mild Prelate, or by the in- 
fluence of some powerful patron. If Cotton and Hooker 
were not spared, Williams could not be suffered to preach, 
for his refusal to conform seems to have been more decided 
than theirs, t 

The same motives, without doubt, which induced others 
to forsake their native land for America, operated on the 
mind of Mr. Williams. On the 1st of December, 1630, 
he embarked at Bristol, in the ship Lyon, Captain William 
Peirce. His wife accompanied him, a lady, of whose pre- 
vious history we are more ignorant than of his own. I 

* Mr. Williams had some personal intercourse with the monarch, 
but of what kind does not appear. In his letter to Major Mason, he 
refers to '• King James, whom I have spoke with." 

t " Ahhough the discusser acknowledgetli himself unworthy to 
speak for God to Master Cotton, or any, yet possibly Master Cotton 
may call to mind, that the discusser (riding with himself and one 
other, of precious memory, Master Hooker, to and from Sempring- 
ham) presented his arguments from Scripture, why he durst not join 
with them in their use of Common Prayer." Bloody Tenet made 
more Bloody, p. 12. 

t Mr. William Harris, in a letter, speaks of a Mr. Warnard, as a 
brother of Mrs. Williams, apparently meaning the wife of Roger 
Williams. This is the only hint which the author has found, re- 



32 M E M O I R O F 

There is, however, satisfactory evidence, in her subsequent 
life, of her virtues as a wife and a mother. We cannot 
doubt, that she was of a kindred spirit with her husband, 
whose fortunes, both adverse and prosperous, she shared 
for half a century. 

specting the family of Mrs. Williams. Her name, by some strange 
mistake, is stated, in the records of the church at Providence, to 
have been Elizabeth, instead of Mary, her real name. These records 
led Mr. Benedict, in his vakiable History, (vol. i. p. 47G) into the 
same error. On his authority, one of the descendants of Roger 
Wilhams, now hving, named a child Elizabeth, in honor, as she 
meant it, of her venerable mateinal ancestor. 



R O -J E R W I F. L I A M S . 33 



CHAPTER II. 



Historical Sketcli — View of the condition of the country at the time 
of Mr. WiUiams' arrival. 

The first settlement, by Europeans, in North America, 
was made in 1585, when Sir Walter Raleigh sent a fleet 
of seven ships from England to Virginia. One hundred 
and seven persons were landed on the island of Roanoke, 
near the mouth of Albemarle Sound, in the present State 
of North Carolina. But discouraged by the want of pro- 
visions, and probably by other causes, all the colonists re- 
turned to England the next year. Another, and more suc- 
cessful, attempt was made twenty years afterwards, under 
the authority of a patent from King James, who granted all 
the territory in North America, comprehended between 
the 34th and 45th degrees of latitude, to be equally divided 
between two companies, called, respectively, the London 
and the Plymouth. 

In 1607, three ships, with one hundred emigrants, form- 
ed a settlement on the James River, in Virginia, and called 
the spot Jamestown, in honor of the King. 

In the same year, a small colony made a settlement at 
the mouth of the Kennebec River, in the present State of 
Maine ; but the loss of their stores by fire, and the severity 
of the winter, induced them all to aba-ndon the undertak- 
ing the next year, and return to England. 

In 1610, a settlement was commenced at Newfoundland, 
and in 1614, the Dutch built a fort on the island of Man- 
hattan, where the city of New York now stands, and held 
the country many years, under a grant from the States' 
General, by the name of the New Netherlands.* 

In 1620, the ever memorable landing of the Pilgrims at 
Plymouth took place. The colonists were a company of 
Puritans, who left England so early as 1608, with their 
pastor, the Rev. John Robinson, and settled at Ley den, in 
Holland. The merciless oppression which they endured 
in England impelled them thus to abandon their native 

* Holmes' Am. Annals, vol. i. p. 146. 
4 



34 MEMOIR OF 

land. They enjoyed protection and prosperity in llcljand, 
but they were not satisfied with their condition end pros- 
pects in that country, which a foreign language and lax 
morals rendered an undesirable horrie for them and their 
children. They accordingly resolved to emigrate to Amer- 
ica. They sailed from Plym.outh (England) in September, 
1620, and on the 11th of December they landed at the 
spot to wliich they gave the name of Plymouth. 

The settlement of Massachusetts Bay occurred a few 
years after. This great enterprise was conducted under 
the direction of the Plymouth Company, who obtained a 
new patent from King James, by which a number of the 
highest nobility and gentry of England, their associates 
and successors, were constituted " the Council established 
at Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting, 
ruling, ordering and governing of New England, in Amer- 
ica." By this patent, the whole territory between the 4Gth 
and the 4Sth degrees of north latitude, from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific Ocean, was granted to the company.* In 
1627-8, the Company sold to several gentlemen, among 
vv'hom were John Endicott and John Humfrey, all that part 
of New-England which lies between three miles north of 
Merriraac River and three miles south of Charles River, 
across the whole breadth of the continent. In June, 1G28, 
Mr. Endicott sailed from England, for Naumkeag, since 
called Salem, where a small company of emigrants had 
fixed their residence a sliort time before. Mr. Endicott's 
first letter from America is dated September 13, 1C28, and 
his arrival is considered as the date of tlic first permanent 
settlement of Massachusetts Proper. 



* Tins cxtensivo orant iiicludod a considorablo part of \ho British 
colonics in North America, tho whole of tJie New Eno-laiid States. 
and of New York; about lialf of Pennyylvania ; two thirds of New 
Jersey and Oiiio ; a half of Indiana and Illinois; tlic whole of Mich- 
igan. Huron, and the whole of the territory of the United States 
westward of tlieni. and on both sides of the R.ocky JVIountains ; and 
from a point consid(^rably within the Mexican dominions, on the Pa- 
cific Ocean, nearly up to Nootka Sound. This encrmcus grant 
shov/s how imptMlectly the geog-raphy of the country was known, by 
James and his counsellors. The Council soon found their undeitak- 
inir an unprofitable speculation, and surrendered tlieir patent to 
the Crown. See lion. E. Everett's Anniversary Address at Charles- 
town . June 28, 1 r<'S{), pp. ] 3, 31 . 



11 O G E R \V I L L I A iM S . 35 

The patent from the Council of Plymouth gave a good 
right to the soil, (says Hutchinson, vol. i. pp. 16, 17) but 
no powers of government. A royal charter was necessary. 
This passed the seals March 4, 1623-9. It confirmed the 
patent of the Council of Plymouth, and created the Gov- 
ernor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, in New- 
England, a body politic and corporate. By this charter, 
the Company w^ere empowered to elect, annually, forever, 
out of the freemen of said Company, a Governor, a Deputy 
Governor, and eighteen assistants, and to make laws not 
repugnant to the laws of England. 

As the state of things in the parent country daily be- 
came more distressing to the friends of religion and liberty, 
an emigi-ation, unparalleled for its extent, and for the 
character of the emigrants, was projected. A considera- 
ble number of persons of great respectability, of good for- 
tune, and of consideration in society, among wiiom were 
Winthrop, Dudley, Johnson, and Saltonstall, resolved to 
remove, with their families and property, to Massachusetts, 
on condition that the charter of the colony and the seat of 
its government should be transferred to America. This im- 
portant proposition was acceded to, and on the 23th of 
April, 1630, Winthrop, who had been elected Governor, 
and his associates, sailed from Yarmouth,* in a fleet, 
which, with the vessels that preceded and followed them 
the same season, amounted in the whole to seventeen sail,t 
with above fifteen hundred passengers. | The Arbella, 
with Governor Winthrop on board, arrived at Salem on the 
12th of June, and the other vessels arrived soon after. 
The colonists there had lost eighty of their number by 
death the winter previous. Their provisions were nearly 
consumed, and they were in a distressing situation. The 
arrival of the nev/ emigrants occasioned great joy to the 
sufferers, and revived their hopes. 

It was early determined that Salem was not the proper 
position for the capital. The Governor, and the principal 
part of the emigrants, left Salem soon after their arrival, 
and resided awhile at Charlestown. Here sickness pre- 



^ Winthrop's Journal, vol. i. p. 5. 

1 Everett's Address, p. "27. t Hutchinson, vol i. p. 24. 



36 MEMOIROF 

vailed among them, and a considerable number died.* 
They were distressed by the want of fresh water. Many of 
them accordingly abandoned Charlestown, and settled at 
Watertown and Dorchester, while a still larger number re- 
moved, in September, to the other side of the river, and 
laid the foundation of Boston. The peninsula was then 
inhabited by only one white man, the Rev. William Black- 
stone. f It was called by the Indians Shawmut, and by 
the neighboring settlers, Trimountain, the former name 
signifying the abundance and sweetness of its waters, the 
latter the peculiar character of its hills.f It was called 
Boston by a vote of the Court, September 7, in well de- 
served honor of the Rev. John Cotton, who had been a 
minister of Boston, in England, and whose arrival in 
America was earnestly expected. 

The sufferings of the first inhabitants of the metropolis 
were very great. Sickness swept many of them into the 
grave. The weather during the winter was extremely se- 
vere, and provisions were so scarce, that the inhabitants 
were in imminent peril of starvation. § At this critical 



* It is stated, that not less than two hundred persons died, from the 
time the company sailed from England, in April, up to the Decem- 
ber following. Everett's Address, p. 50. 

t This gentleman came from England. He claimed the whole 
peninsula of Boston, because he was the first white man who slept 
there. He hospitably invited Gov. Winthrop and his friends to re- 
move thither, on account of a fine spring of water there. He soon 
left Boston, alleging that he left England because he did not like 
the Lords Bishops, but he could not join with the colonists, because 
he did not like the Lords Brethren. His rights as the first occupant 
were acknowledged, and thirty pounds were paid to him in 1634. 
He removed to a spot in the present town of Cumberland, (R. I.) 
about six miles from Providence, and the river which flows near 
now bears his name. 'He lived to an old age, and occasionally 
preached at Providence and other places. Tradition says, that he 
sometimes secured the attention of his hearers by a skilful distribu- 
tion of apples. His orchard flourished long after his death, and 
some of the trees are, it is said, yet standing. 

t President Quincy's His. Dis. Sept. 17, 1830, p. 19. 

§ It may be profitable to the men of tliis generation to read the 
following account, given by Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 27. 

'• The weather held tolerable until the 24th of December, but the 
cold then came on with violence. Such a Christmas eve they had 
never seen before. From that time to the 10th of February their 
chief care was to keep themselves warm, and as comfortable, in 



noGER Williams. 



37 



juncture, tho ship Lyon, in which Roger Williams had 
embarkod, arrived, on the 5th of February, 1630-1. Gov- 
ernor Y/inthrop (vol. i. pp. 41, 4'2) thus records the arrival 
of this vessel : 

" Feb. 5. The ship Lyon,* Mr. Vv illiani Peirce, master, 
arrived at Nantasket. She brought i\lr. Williams, a godly 
minister,! with his vvife, Mr. Throgmorton, Perkins, Ong, 
and others, with their wives and children, about twenty 
passengers, and about two hundred tons of goods. She set 
sail from Bristol, December L She had a very tempestuous 
passage, yet through God's mercy, all her people came 
safe, except Way his son, who fell from the spritsail yard 
in a tempest, and could not be recovered, though he kept 
in sig'it near a quarter of an iiour ; her goods also came all 
in good condition." 

The strong contrast between the situation of the present 
inhabitants of the metropolis, and that of the little company 
of suffering exiles in 1630, forces itself on our minds. 
They were few in number. They had no suitable dwell- 
other respects, as their scant provisions would permit. The poorer 
sort were much exposed, lying in tents and miserable hovels, and 
many died of the scurvj and other distempers. They were so short 
of provisions, that niiiv^ were obliged to live upon clams, muscles, 
and other shell fish, with ground nuts and acorns instead of bread. 
One that came to the Governor's house, to complain cf his suffer- 
ings, was prevented, being informed that even there the last batch 
v/as in t'le oven. Some in^itances are mentioned of great calmness 
and resignation in this distress. A man who had asked his neighbor 
to a dish of clam3, after dinner returned thanks to God, who had 
given them to suck of the abundance of the seas, and of treasures 
hid in the sands. They had appointed the 22d of February for a 
fast; but on the 5th, to their great joy, the ship Lyon, Capt. Peirce. 
one of the last year's fleet, returned, laden with provisions, from 
England, which v/ere distributed according to the necessities of the 
people. They turned their fast into a thanksgiving." 

■^ This was a regular col ^ny ship. Her arrival from England, with 
emigrants, supplies, &c. is often noted in the Journal. The follow- 
ing November, on the 2d. she arrived with the Governor's wife, the 
famous John Elliot, and others. But, unfortunately, she v/as cast 
avv'ay on the 2d of November, 1G33, upon a shoal off the coast of 
Virginia. G. 

tin the first edition this was printed "man.'" Mr. Savage, in a 
note, says : '• In the original MS. this word has been tampered with, 
perhap.3 by some zealot, 3-et it appears clearly enough to be Win- 
tlirop's usual abbreviation for that which is restored in the text, and 
Prince read it as I do." 

4* 



8B ivt E M o 1 n o t' 

ings to shelter them from the rigors of winter, then more 
severe, perhaps, than any which we now experience. They 
were almost without food. Disease was among them, and 
several of their number sunk into the grave, whose lives 
might doubtless have been preserved, had they been fur- 
nished with suitable shelter, food and medicine. When 
they looked around them, all was dreary and melancholy. 
" Where now exists a dense and aggregated mass of living 
beings and material things, amid all the accommodations 
of life, the splendors of wealth, the delights of taste, and 
whatever can gratify the cultivated intellect, there were 
then only a few hills, which, when the ocean receded, 
were intersected by wide marshes, and when its tide re- 
turned, appeared a group of lofty islands, abruptly rising 
from the surrounding waters. Thick forests concealed 
the neighboring hills, and the deep silence of nature was 
broken only by the voice of the wild beast or the bird, and 
the war whoop of the savage."* 

How different the situation of the present inhabitants. 
That little company has swelled to more than sixty thou- 
sand. Those forests, which then covered the hills and val- 
lies, are gone; the ocean has been driven back from much 
of the space over which it then rolled ; and now, where 
stood the few tents and cabins of the first settlers, have 
sprung up, over the whole peninsula, sumptuous structures 
and spacious temples, comfortable dwellings, ample ware- 
houses, and every thing which can minister to the happi- 
ness of men. The poorest of its citizens is better sheltered 
and better fed, than some of the richest femilies among the 
first inhabitants. Let them give devout thanks to God, 
that He has reserved for them a happier lot than that of 
their fathers. Let them, amid their profusion of blessings, 
praise the Lord, who has done so great things for their 
city, and its successive generations. Let them, above all, 
hold fast those great truths, for which the founders sacri- 
ficed every thing dear to them on earth. 

As the colonists came to this country to enjoy the privi- 
lege of worshipping God according to their conceptions of 
His will, it was, of course, among their first objects to form 
churches, and make provision for the regular worship of 
the Most High. 

^Quincy's Hist. Dis. 1830, p. 20. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. S9 

The settlers at Plymouth were organized as a church 
before they left Holland, and as such they landed on our 
shores. This church was formed on the principle of en- 
tire independence on all human authority. Its members 
belonged to that class of the Non-Conformists, who had 
separated entirely from the Church of England, and adopt- 
ed a form of church polity which they deemed more con- 
sistent with the letter and the spirit of the New Testament, 

The separate independence of each church on all others; 
the necessity of true piety as a qualification for member- 
ship ; the right of each church to elect its own officers ; 
the rejection of all officers except pastors or elders, and 
deacons, and the entire equality of all pastors and elders, 
in respect to power and privileges, were among the princi- 
ples adopted by this excellent body of Christians. They 
are the principles which the Scriptures teach, and it would 
have been happy for the cause of truth, if they had been 
held fast, without any cocrupt mixture, by all the churches 
which professed to receive them. Another principle adopt- 
ed by the church of Plymouth was, that ecclesiastical cen- 
sures are wholly spiritual, and not to be accompanied with 
temporal penalties. In this respect, the church of Ply- 
mouth were in advance of their brethren in Massachusetts, 
and the history of the Plymouth colony is honorably distin- 
guished by a tolerant spirit, which contributed not less to 
her peace and prosperity, than to her true fame. 

The first settlers at Salem, Boston, and other towns in 
Massachusetts Bay, belonged, for the most part, to the 
other class of Non-Conformists, who did not, while in 
England, separate wholly from the Established Church, 
though they opposed her corruptions. They desired only a 
further reform of the Church herseli, and retained their 
membership, some of them conforming, though reluctantly, 
to her ceremonies, to avoid persecution, and others refusing 
such a conformity, protected awhile by the indulgence of 
some mild Prelates, or by the friendship of powerful lay- 
men. When, at length, despairing of the desired reform, 
and weary of persecution, they embarked for America, 
they came as members of the Church of England. Win- 
throp and his associates, while on board the fleet at Yar- 
mouth, addressed a farewell letter to the "rest of their 
brethren in and of the Church of EnMand," which is as 



40 -M E xM 1 K O i'^ 

beautiful in diction as it is admirable for its ailectioiinto 
pathos. They say, " We desire you would be pleased to 
take notice of the principals and body of our company, as 
those who esteem it our honor to call the Church of Eng- 
land, from whence wo arise, our dear mother, and cannot 
part from our native country, vvliere she specially resideth, 
without much sadness of heart and many tears in our eyes ; 
ever acknowledging, that such hope and part as we have 
obtained in the common salvation, we have received in 
her bosom, and sucked it from her breasts. ¥/e leave it 
not, therefore^ as loathing that milk, wherewith we were 
nourished, but blessing God for the parentage and ed- 
ucation, as members of the same body, shall always rejoice 
in her good, and unfeignedly grieve ibr any sorrow that 
shall ever betide her; and, while we have breath, sincerely 
desire and endeavor the continuance and abundance of 
her welfare, with the enlargement of her bounds in the 
kingdom of Christ Jesus."* 

There was, uncpestionably, an entire sincerity in these 
expressions of attachment to the Church of England. 
There v>^as, as they judged, no inconsistency in their sub- 
sequent conduct, in forming churches, from which Episco- 
pacy, and all the ceremonies of the parent Church, were 
excluded. Their love for that Church was founded on her 
doctrines, not on her ceremonies. They recognised in 
her articles the genuine faith, once delivered to the saints. 
Her ceremonies they regarded as unseemly appendages, 
the relics of Popish superstition, of which they desired to 
divest her. They loved the inward spirit, not the outward 
form. They did reverence to the majestic soul, while 
they looked with sorrow on her fantastic attire. They 
would have remained in her bosom-, and submitted to much 
which they deemed undesirable, if she would have per- 
mitted them to reject what they considered as positively 
unlavv'ful and v/rong. But as she left them no alternative 
but unconditional submission, or exile, they departed for 
America ; and Vv^hen they came to form churches here, 
they endeavored to incorporate that soul in a body befitting 
her dignity. The American church was, in their view, 
the Church of England, redeemed and regenerated, hold- 

^ Hutchinson, vol. i. Appendix, No. 1. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 41 

ing to her former self a similar relation to that which the 
just man made perfect bears to the saint who is still on 
earth, and encumbered with his diseased and mortal body. 

A church was formed at Salem, on the 6th of August, 
1629, when thirty persons entered into a covenant in writ- 
ing, and the Rev. Mr. Skelton was ordained, or instituted, 
as the pastor, and the Rev. Mr. Higginson as the teacher ; 
these offices being considered as distinct, and both being 
deemed essential to the welfare of a church. The 
church thus formed was entirely independent. The Gov- 
ernor of Plymouth, and other members of the church there, 
who had been invited to attend the ceremony, were not 
permitted to give the right hand of fellowship to the new 
church, till an explicit declaration had been made, that 
this service was not meant to indicate any right of inter- 
ference or control. The pastor and teacher were inducted 
into office by the vote of the church, and by the imposition 
of the hands of the ruling elder, as the organ of the church. 
Thus careful were this body to exclude, at the outset, all 
authority but that of the Head of the Church. Several of 
the inhabitants, among whom Messrs. John and Samuel 
Brown were the principal men, opposed the new church, 
because the liturgy of the Church of England was re- 
jected.* They accordingly formed another society, in 
which the book of common prayer was read. The schism 
was speedily remedied, by a measure which was much 
more energetic than just. Mr. John Brown and his bro- 
ther, the leaders, were sent to England, and their followers 
quietly relinquished their opposition. 

A church was formed at Charlestown, July 30, 1630, 
by Governor Winthrop and a number of other persons, who 
signed a covenant, in which they simply promised to "walk 

* The reply of the ministers of the church to this objection is worthy 
of notice, as confirming the views Avhich have been stated re- 
specting their feelings toward the Church of England. '• They did 
not (they declared) separate from the Church of England, nor from 
the ordinances of God there, but only from the corruptions and dis- 
orders of that Church ; that they came away from the common 
prayer and ceremonies, and had suffered much for their non-con- 
formity in their native land, and therefore, being in a place where 
they might have their liberty, they neither could nor would use 
them, inasmuch as they judged the imposition of these things to be 
a violation of the worship of God." Magnalia, b. i, eh. iv. § 8. 



M r. 31 O Ml OF 



in all our ways acccrdincr to the rule of the Gospel, and in 
all sincere conformity to his holy ordinances, and in mutual 
love and respect to each other, so near as God shall give 
us grace."* On the 27th of August, the Rev. John Wil- 
son was elected teacher. " We used imposition of han(^s," 
says Governor Yv'inthrop, " but vvith this protestation by 
all, that it v/as only as a sign of election and confirmation, 
not of any intent that Mr. Wilson should renounce his 
ministry he received in England. "f Thus careful vi^ere 
they to guard the independence of the church, while they 
preserved due respect for the Church of England, whose 
ministers, so far as they were pastors and teachers, they 
acknowledged and hx^nored. 

When the Governor and the greater portion of the colo- 
nists removed to Boston, the church, with the minister, 
removed thither. It remained without a house for public 
worship till August, 168'2,.when a building was com- 
menced,! on the south side of State street, opposite the 
spot where the Branch Bank now stands. It was a lium- 
ble structure, with a thatched roof and mud walls. § Per- 
haps, however, the metropolis has never seen a more de- 
vout congregation than that which was accustomed to 
assemble there. It ueil illustrates the piety of the found- 
ers, and their high regard for the ministry, that at the first 
Court of Assistants, held on board the Arbella, at Charles- 
town, August 23, 1630, the first question propounded was, 
Jloiv shall the ministers be maintaitiecJ ? It was ordered, 
that houses be built for them with convenient speed, at the 
public charge, and their salaries were established. These 
were sufficiently moderate. Mr. Wilson was allowed twen- 
ty pounds per annum, till his wife should arrive, and Mr. 
Phillips, the minister of Watertown, was to receive thirty 
pounds. 11 

The ecclesiastical polity, now comm.enced, was after- 
wards moulded into a more regular and permanent form, 
by the personal influence of Mr. Cotton, and by the author- 
ity of the platform adopted in 1648. The great principles 
which were established were these : each church is inde- 



* Snow's History of Boston, p. 30. 

i Winthrop, vol. i. p. 32. t Ibid, vol. i. p. 87. 

§ Snow's Hist, of Bt..ston, p. 42. H Winthrop, vcl i p 30, nr.ta. 



ROt; Ell W I !,[,I AMS, 43 

pendent, and possesses the sole power of governing itself, 
according to the Scriptures ; piety and a holy life are the 
qualifications for church membership ; the officers of a 
church are pastors, teachers, ruling elders and deacons, 
and are to be chosen by the church itself; the ordination of 
ministers is to be performed with imposition of hands, by 
the ministers of the neighboring churches. These and 
other principles, which, with some exceptions, are still held 
by the Independent, Congregational and Baptist churches, 
were joined, with another article, which was the source of 
manifold mischiefs to the colony. It is thus expressed, in 
the words of Hubbard, (540) : "Church government and 
civil government may very well stand together, it being the 
duty of the magistrate to take care of matters of religion, 
and to improve his civil authority for observing the duties 
commanded in the first as well as in the second table ; 
seeing the end of their office is not only the quiet and 
peaceable life of the subject in matters of righteousness and 
honesty, but also in matters of godliness." 1 Tim. ii. 1,2. 
The ecclesiastical polity being adjusted, the civil govern- 
ment was made to conform to it.* To the excellent found- 
ers, religion was the most precious of all interests, and 
civil government was, in their view, usefiil, no further than 
it was necessary for the good order of the community, and 
the security of their religious privileges. Having escaped 
from the grasp of the civil power in England, they resolved, 
that in the new state to be formed here, the church should 
hold the first place. They v»^ished to erect here a commu- 
nity, which should be itself a church, governed by the laws 
of Jesus Christ, flourishing in the peace and beauty of 
lioliness, and realizing the glorious visions of the propliets. 
it was a noble conception, a sublijne purpose, of wliicli 
none but pure hearted men U'ould have b(^en capable. That 
they failed in accomplishing all their plans, was the natural 
result of human corruption ; but they succeeded in Ibrm- 
iiig a community, more moral, more easily governed, better 
«;ducated, more thoroughly under the control of religious 
principles, and more truly free, than .the world had tlien 
seen. At the General Court, held so early as May 18, 
i631, it was ordered, that no person should be admitted to 



Extract from a letter of Mr. Cotton. Hutchinson, Appendix iii. 



44 MEMOIR OF 

the privileges of a freeman, unless he was a member of 
some church in the colony. This law was, no doubt, un- 
just, and the colony was afterwards forced to repeal it. It 
was, also, injurious to the interests of religion, for it made 
church membership an object of earnest desire, for political 
purposes, and thus introduced men without piety into the 
church. It led to the adoption, to some extent, of the 
ruinous principle, that piety is not necessary to church 
membership, and it was one of the causes of that unhappy 
strife, which issued in the introduction of the halfway 
covenant.* But the law is characteristic of the founders, 
and proves their determination to keep the state subordi- 
nate to the church. They also adopted, as the basis of 
their civil code, the laws of Moses, so far as they were of a 
moral nature, though, as Roger Williams remarked, "they 
extended their moral equity to so many particulars as to 
take in the whole judicial law." They punished crimes, 
not by the laws of England, but by those of Moses. Idol- 
atry, blasphemy, man stealing, adultery, and some other 
crimes, not punishable with death by the laws of the parent 
country, were made capital. Every inhabitant was com- 
pelled to contribute, in proportion to his ability, to the sup- 
port of religion. This adoption of the Mosaic code, and a 
constant disposition to seek for precedents in the Old Tes- 
tament, will account for many of the measures which have 
been attributed to the bigotry of our fathers. 

* See Dr. Wisner's valuable Historical Discourses, May 9 and 16, 
1830. ■ ' - 



ROGERWILLIAMS. 45 



CHAPTER III. 



Mr. Williams refuses to unite with the Boston church — is invited to 
Salem — interference of the General Court — removes to Plymouth 
— the Indians — difficulties at Plymovith — birth of Mr. Williams' 
eldest child. 

On the 5th of February, 1630-1,* as we have already 
stated, Mr. Williams arrived in America, where he was to 
become one of the founders of a great nation. As a 
minister of the Gospel, he would naturally seek, without 
delay, for an opportunity to fulfil his office. He was, it is 
probable, without property, and a sense of duty would con- 
cur with the dictates of prudence, to urge him to inquire 
for some situation where he might be useful, while he ob- 
tained a maintenance. The church in Boston were sup- 
plied with a pastor, and the great Cotton was expected to 
become their teacher. There Mas, however, another diffi- 
culty to which we shall soon have occasion to recur. 

In a few weeks after Mr. Williams' arrival, he was invited 
by the church at Salem to become an assistant to Mr. 
Skelton, as teacher, in the place of the accomplished Hig- 
ginson, who died a few months before. Mr. Williams 
complied with the invitation, and commenced his ministry 
in that town. But the civil authority speedily interfered, in 
accordance with the principle afterwards established in the 
platform, that " if any church, one or more, shall grow 
schismaticai, rending itself from the communion of 
other churches, or shall walk incorrigibly and obstinately in 
any corrupt way of their own, contrary to the rule of the 
word ; in such case, the magistrate is to put forth his 
coercive power, as the matter shall require. "t 

On the r2th of April, says Governor Winthrop (vol. i. p. 
53) " at a Court, holden at Boston, (upon information to 
the Governor, that they of Salem had called Mr. Williams 
to the office of teacher,) a letter was written from the Court 

* Mr. Backus, and some other writers, have this date 1631, either by 
mistake, or by neglecting the difference between the old and the new 
style. Some confusion has thus been introduced into the accounts 
of Mr. Williams. 

t Magnalia, b. v. ch. 17. 
5 



4() M !•: M O I R OF 

to Mr. Endicott to this effect : That whereas Mr. Williams 
had refused to join with the congregation at Boston, because 
they would not make a public declaration of their repent- 
ance for having communion with the churches of England, 
while they lived there ; and besides, had declared his 
opinion that tlie magistrate might not punish a breach of 
the Sabbath, nor any other offence, as it was a breach of 
the first table ; therefore they marvelled they would choose 
him without advising with the Council ; and withal desiring 
him that they v;ould forbear to proceed till they had confer- 
red about it." 

The first of these charges is made in very indefinite 
terms.* It does not appear, what was the degree of 
conformity which the members of the church had practised 
in England, nor what degree of criminality was, in the 
estimation of Mr. Williams, attributable to their conduct. 
It is well known, that some of the Puritans did maintain, 
till they left England, a connection with the church, from 
whose ritual they secretly dissented, and whose corruptions 
they deeply deplored. We have already stated, that 
Governor Winthrop and his associates had not separated 
from the church when they left England, but acknowledged 
themselves, at the moment of their departure, as among her 
children. Many good men considered this conformity as a 
pusillanimous and sinful connivance at evil, tending to 
sanction and perpetuate the corruptions of the church. 
Mr. Cotton himself, being forced, by the intolerance of the 
hierarchy, either to submit to their ritual, or to suffer the 
vengeance of the High Commission Court, resolved to 
leave England. He travelled in disguise to London. 
" Here," says Cotton Mather, (Magnalin, I), iii. chap. 1. 
§ IvS) " the Lord had a work for him to do, which he little 
thought of Some reverend and renowned ministers of our 
Lord in that great city, who yet had not seen sutlicient 
reason to expose themselves unto persecution for the sake 
of non-conformity, but looked upon the imposed ceremo- 
nies as indifferent and sufferable trifles, and weighed not the 
aspect of the second commandment upon all the parts and 



" Emerson in his History of the First Cliurch is not more explicit 
He says, (p. 13) •• It has been said of tliis man. that he refused com- 
munion," &c. 



It O G ER \V ILLI AxM S. 47 

means of instituted worship, took this opportunity for a 
conference with Mr. Cotton ; bein^y persuaded, that since 
he was no passionate, but a very judicious man, they should 
prevail with him rather to conform, than to leave his work 
and his land. Upon the motion of a conference, Mr. 
Cotton most readily yielded; and iirst, all their arguments 
for conformity, together with Mr. Byfield's, Mr. Yf hately's, 
and Mr. Sprint's, were produced, all of which Mr. Cotton 
answered, unto their wonderful satisfaction. Then he 
gave his arguments for his non-conformity, and the reasons 
why he must rather forego his ministry, or, at least, his 
country, than wound his conscience with unlawful com- 
pliance ; the issue whereof was, that instead of bringing 
Mr. Cotton back to what he had now forsaken, he brought 
them off altogether from what they had hitherto practised. 
Every one of those eminent persons, Dr. Goodwin, Mr. 
Nye, and Mr. Davenport, now became all that he was, and 
at last left the kingdom for their being so." 

If, then, these distinguished ministers had practised a 
conformity which Mr. Cotton esteemed " unlawful," and 
which Cotton Mather seems to have considered as a breach 
of the second commandment, it is probable, that many 
private Christians had done the same. The members of 
the Boston church had undoubtedly shared in these " com- 
pliances." But if Mr. Cotton could not conform, without 
wounding his conscience, he must have thought the prac- 
tice criminal. There is no question, that Mr. Williams 
was of the same opinion ; and as his temper was more 
ardent and bold than that of Mr. Cotton, his opposition to 
whit he must have regarded as highly censurable, would 
naturally be strong and decided. It is not very surprising, 
therefore, if, on his arrival in America, witli a vivid sense 
of recent wrong from the persecuting church, he was disin- 
clined to a cordial union with those who had, in any mea- 
sure, yielded to her despotic pretensions, and sanctioned, by 
any acts of compliance, her unscriptural requirements. 
We are not told, precisely, in wlmt terms, and to what 
extent, he wished the members of the Boston church to 
express their repentance for their conduct. He, perhaps, 
allowed his feelings to bias his judgment in this case , and 
to make him forget his own principles of liberty of con- 
science ; but the facts to which we have alluded show. 



48 MEMOIROF 

that his objections were not altogether frivolous, nor his 
conduct the offspring of bigotry and caprice. It appears, 
that his feelings were afterwa.'ds allayed ; and while at 
Plymouth, the next year, he '^ommuned with Governor 
Winthrop and other gentlemen from Boston.* 

The other allegation, made in the extract from Winthrop, 
that Mr. Williams denied the power of the civil magistrate 
to punish men for violations of the first table of the law,t 
that is, in other words, for the neglect, or the erroneous per- 
formance, of their duties to God, is one, which, at this day, 
needs little discussion. Time has wrought out a triumph- 
ant vindication of this great principle. The doctrine, that 
man is accountable to his Maker alone for his religious 
opinions and practices, and is entitled to an unrestrained 
liberty to maintain and enjoy them, provided that he does 
not interfere with the rights of others, and with the civil 
peace of society, has won for itself, in this country, at least, 
a place among the undisputed principles of thought and 
action. Ample experience has demonstrated, even in 
New-England, the manifold evils which spring from intrust- 
ing to civil rulers th3 po-wer to legislate for the church, to 
control the conscience, and to regulate the intercourse 
between men and his Creator. We shall have occasion to 
recur to this topic. It is sufficient now to say, that Mr. 
Williams stood on the firm ground of truth and of enlight- 
ened policy, when he denied to the civil magistrate the 
right to interfere with the consciences of men.| There is 
no allegation, that he failed, on this occasion, in due re- 

* Winthrop, vol. i. p 91. 

t The moral law was considered as divided into two tables, the 
first table containing the first four commandments, which relate to 
our duties towards God ; and the second table, containing the other 
six commandments, which prescribe certain duties towards men. 

t The note of Mr. Savage, in his edition of Winthrop, vol. i. p. 53, 
deserves to be quoted : 

'' All, who are inclined to separate that connection of secular 
concerns with the duti3s of religion, to which most governments, in 
all countries, have been too much disposed, will think this opinion of 
Roger Williams redounds to his praise. The laws of the first table, 
or the fiDur commandm">nts of the decalogue first in order, should be 
rather impressed by early education than by penal enactments of the 
legislature ; and the experience of Rhode Island and other States of 
our Union is perhaps favorable to the sentiment of this earliest 
American reformer. Too much regulation was the error of our fathers, 
who were perpetually arguing from analogies in the Levitical institu- 
tions, and encumbering themselves with the yoke of Jewish customs." 



II O (J E R \V I L I. 1 A M S. 4i) 

Spec t for the constituted authorities; but he claimed the 
right of a freeman to speak freely of their principles and 
measures. His natural temperament would give warmth 
and energy to his remonstrance. A calmer man than he 
might have been moved, if, when driven from his native 
land by intolerance, he found, in the country to which he 
had tied, the same principles maintained, the same usurpa- 
tion of power over the conscience claimed, as a regular 
attribute of the civil authority. 

It appears, therefore, that the General Court had little 
cause for their interference between Mr. Williams and the 
church at Salem. Their right to interfere, for any cause, 
will not now be maintained by any man. That church, 
though she was probably aware of the disapprobation and 
meditated interference of the Coiiri, seem/j to have disre- 
garded it, and on the l'2th of April, the same day on which the 
Court was held, received Mr. Williams, as her minister. *" 
She thus consulted her duty as well as her true interests. 
Jesus Christ is the only King and Legislator of his church. 
He has given her his statute book, and it is as inconsistent 
with her duty, as it ought to be repugnant to her feelings, 
to permit any attempt to abridge the rights vyhich her Lord 
has bestowed on her. The choice of her pastors and 
teachers is one of her m.ost sacred rights, and most import- 
ant duties. She is bound to exercise this high privilege, 
in humble dependence on the teachings of divine wisdom, 
but with a resolute resistance of attempts, from any quarter, 
to control her election. 

Notwithstanding the unv/arrantable proceedings of the 
Court, which must have been oifensive both to the princi- 
ples and the feelings of Mr. Williams, we find him, the 
next month, (the 18th of May, 1631) taking the usual oath 
on his admission as a freeman. t This fact is worthy of 
notice, because it proves, that he was willing to honor the 

* 1 His. Col. vi. p. 54('. 

t Prince, p. 355. Mc. V/illiams" neaiie is found in a list of persons, 
*• desiring to be made freenien," at the last Court, which met October 
39, 1630. nearly four months befjre his arrival in America. Prince, 
p. 331. This author explains the difficulty, by saying (p. 377.) that 
the October list •' comprehends all those who entered their desires 
betv\'een that time and May 18. 1631." It appears, therefore, that 
Mr. "Williams, with characteristic decision, entered his name on the 
list very soon after his arrival. 



so M E M O I R O {* 

civil authorities, within their proper sphere, and that he 
desired to become a permanent and useful citizen. It 
shows, too, that he had no objection to an oath, when 
administered in a proper manner, and for suitable ends. 
At this very Court, the law was made, which excluded from 
the rights of freemen every person, who was not a member 
of some one of the churches. Whether the difficulty 
which had already risen respecting Mr. Williams, had any 
influence in producing this measure, cannot now be ascer- 
tained. 

Notwithstanding that the church at Salem had received 
Mr. Williams, he was not permitted to remain in peace. 
" Persecution," says Dr. Bentley,* '* instead of calm expos- 
tulation, instantly commenced, and Williams, before the 
close of summer, was obliged to retire to Plymouth." That 
this separation from the church at Salem was not a volun- 
tary one, on her part or on his, may be presumed, from the 
fact, asserted by the historian of Salem just quoted, that "he 
was embraced with joy at Salem, and throughout all his life 
supported a high place in tlteir affections, as a truly godly 
man."t His return to that town, by their invitation, two 
years after, is a satisfactory proof that the church there felt 
a confidence in his piety, and an attachment to his person 
and ministry.! 

At Plymouth, Mr. Williams was received with much 
respect, and became an assistant to Mr. Ralph Smith, the 
pastor of the church there. Governor Bradford speaks of 
Mr. Williams in honorable terms, § and even Morton, who 
was not much disposed to speak favorably of him, ac- 
knowledges that he " was well accepted as an assistant in 
the ministry." 1 1 

* 1 His. Col. vi. pp. '^4, 56. f Ibid. 

t Mr. Baylies, in his Memoir of Plymouth, vol. i. p. 266, says, 
that Mr. Williams left Salem, because he had " become discontented 
in consequence of son?e difference of opinion between him and Mr. 
Skelton, the pastor." This appears to be a mistake. Mr. Upham, 
in his Second Century Lecture, p. 12, calls Mr. Skelton, " the faith- 
ful defender of Roger Williams." 

§ *• He was freely entertained among us, according to our poor ability, 
exercised his gifts am'^ng us, and after some time was admitted 
a member of the church, and his teaching well approved ; for the 
benefit whereof I shall bless God, and am thankful to him ever for 
his sharpest admonitions and reproofs, so far as they agreed with 
truth." Prince, p. 377. 

II Memorial, p. 151. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 



Durins Mr. Williams' residence at Plymouth Governor 

rr:*"."s.".. .... -.'-.of .h„, «™,.. *« 

■' r,U; ESS TheO..™., -I. M.W„„,,. 

creet and grave m'^" ""™ /'J^^j jhem without the town, 

lowing incident, ^« ^^^'^^f o^^^^/^f itC^^ ^" ^^^^^^^^^ ^^ 

extract shows his s rong P^^J^^^^'f ' '™^ of those times. '^ There 
an illustration of the temper and ^^^Jj'\^^^,i 30 far with the 

were at this time m Ply'^'^^ ^^^^^^^ hey \nsi«ted vehemently upon 
humors of the ^'^^^^ reparation tlmtthey^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ 

the unlawfulness of calling ^y.^^.^'^g^^^et urging of t^ 
good-man such a one until by their ^^^^^f ^^^^^^^ ^ ^je being troubled 
the place began to be ^^^q^ e^ed^ Ihe^^^^^^ #inthrop's 

at these trifles they took he oppoit^^^^^^^^ .^ ^^^ congrega- 

being there, to have the ^hmg f bhc J p^ ^^^^^^^^^ ^ theological 

tion; who, in answer theieunto,d^stm^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ 

and a moral goodness 5 ^i^^ ^|' ^Imt jn ^^J ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^ 
England, it was usual tor tlie crie , ^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ 

that service were called «^Y' f°.^^^^^^^^^^^^ English nation for 

true ; whence it grew to ^e a civ 1 cu om ^od-man such a 

neighbors living by one a^aother to can o ^^^^^^^^.^.^ ^^^,^^^ ,^ 
one, and it.was pity now to make a ^^ ^^ Winthrop's put 

innocently introduced. And tha^^_p^_^^^ ^^^^^.^^^ ^^^^ beginning 
a lasting stop to the liuie, luic, 

to grow obstreperous. -^ be charitably viewed as 

ff the P--^d-gf 3^"^^^^^^^^^^ eonscientio^usness of Mr. Williams, 
an indication of the scinpuioub ^tin^es things, and was un- 

who thought, perhaps, that najesjre somet f^Jiscriminately 

-^^^^"f /'n me" TheCded to GorWinthrop's explanation, 
f^^iT.tlZ-Znot'so obstinate in trifles, as he has been 



it proves, 
represented, 
t Weymouth 



52 M E M O I R OP 

to which the pastor, Mr. Smith, spake briefly ; then Mr. 
Williams prophesied ; and after the Governor of Plymouth 
spake to the question ; after him, the elder ; then some two 
or three more of the congregation. Then the elder desired 
the Governor of Massachusetts and Mr. Wilson, to speak 
to it, which they did. When this was ended, the deacon, 
Mr. Fuller, put the congregation in mind of their duty of 
contribution ; whereupon the Governor and all the rest 
went down to the deacons' seat, and put into the box, and 
then returned." Vol. i. p. 91. 

While at Plymouth, Mr. Williams enjoyed favorable 
opportunities of intercourse with the Indians, who frequently 
visited that town. It appears, too, that he made excur- 
sions among them, to learn their manners and their lan- 
guage, and thus to qualify himself to promote their welfare. 
His whole life furnished evidence of the sincerity of his 
declaration, in one of his letters, ''My soul's desire was, to 
do the natives good." He became acquainted with Mas- 
sasoit, or, as he was also called, Ousamequin, the sachem of 
the Pokanokets, and father of the famous Philip. He also 
formed an intimacy with Canonicus, the Narraganset sa- 
chem. He secured the confidence of these savage chiefs, 
by acts of kindness, by presents, and not less, perhaps, by 
studying their language. He says, in a letter, written near 
the close of his life, "God was pleased to give me a painful, 
patient spirit, to lodge with them in their filthy smoky 
holes, (even while I lived at Plymouth and Salem) to gain 
their tongue." 

The effects of this intimacy with the sachems were very 
important. We shall see, by his subsequent history, that 
his success, in purchasing lands for himself and for the 
other settlers in Rhode Island, was the result mainly of his 
personal influence with the Indians. We discern, in these 
preparatory measures, the hand of God, who was designing 
to employ Mr. Williams as an instrument in establishing a 
new colony, and in preserving New-England from the fury 
of the savages. 

There is reason to believe, that for some time previously 
to his banishment, he had conceived the idea of residing 
among the Indians, and that in his intercourse with the 
sachems, some propositions had been made respecting a 
cession of land. His strong desire to benefit the natives 



ROGERWILLIAMS. 53 

was a sufficient inducement ; and he had, perhaps, seen 
such indications of the state of feeling towards him among 
the colonists, as to awaken an apprehension that he would 
not long be allowed to remain within their jurisdiction. 

Mr. Williams continued about two years at Plymouth. 
Wh^le there, we may easily believe, he uttered his senti- 
ments on those points which had occasioned his removal 
from Salem, as well as on other subjects, in relation to 
which his opinions were at variance with those of that age. 
They were not acceptable to the principal personages at 
Plymouth, though it does not appear that any public ex- 
pression of disapprobation was made by the church. His 
heart was evidently drawn towards Salem, and being in- 
vited to return,* to assist Mr. Skelton, whose declining 
health unfitted him for his duties, Mr, Williams requested 
a dismission from the church at Plymouth. Some of the 
members were unwilling to be separated from him, and ac- 
companied him to Salem, after ineifectual eiforts to detain 
him at Plymouth. f But the ruling elder, Mr. Brewster, 
prevailed on the church to dismiss him and his adherents. 
Mr. Brewster probably disliked his opinions, and feared 
that he would be successful in diffusing them at Plymouth. 
He, therefore, alarmed the church, by expressing his fears, 
that Mr. Williams would " run the same course of rigid 
separation and anabaptistry, which Mr. John Smith, the 
Se-Baptist, at 'Amsterdam, had done."| Anabaptism was 
a spectre, which haunted the imaginations of the early set- 
tlers. The word possessed a mysterious power of inspiring 
terror and creating odium. It has, perhaps, been some- 

* Backus, vol. i. p. 56. Some writers insinuate, that he went back 
without an invitation. 

t Memorial, p. 151. 

+ Memorial, p. 151. Mr. Smith was an English minister, who 
separated from the Church of England, and went to Holland, where 
he embraced the sentiments of the Baptists. He is said to have 
baptized himself, for want of a suitable administrator, and hence was 
called a Se-Baptist. Dr. Toulmin remarks, on this assertion, '' This 
is said on the authority of his opponents only, who, from the acrimo- 
ny with which they wrote against him, it may be reasonably con- 
cluded, might be ready to take up a report against him upon slender 
evidence." Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. ii. p. 72, note. 
Mr. Neal says, that " he was a learned man, of good abihties, but of 
an unsettled head." His adoption of Baptist principles explains tliis 
reproach. 



54 M E M O I R O E 

times employed to justify measures, which might else have 
wanted the appearance of justice and humanity. It was 
one of those terms, which, in the language of the most 
original writer, perhaps, of this age — himself liable to the 
charge of anabaptism* — " can be made the symbol of all 
that is absurd and execrable, so that the very sound of it 
shall irritate the passions of the multitude, as dogs have 
been taught to bark, at the name of a neighboring tyrant. "f 
While Mr. Williams was at Plymouth, his eldest daugh- 
ter was born there, in the first week in August, 1633. | She 
was named Mary, after her mother. 

* The Rev. John Foster, in his essay on the epithet Romantic. 

f See Appendix B. for some remarks on the Anabaptists. 

^Backus, voL i. pp. 57, 516. Dr. Bentley. 1 His. Col. vi. p. 247, 
says, that the child was born in Salem, but Mr. Backus' statement 
is more probable, and he quotes the Providence Records as authority 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Returns to Salem — Ministers Meetings — Court again interferes — 
the rights of the Indians — his book against the patent — wearing of 
veils — controversy about the cross in the colors. 

Mr. Williams left Plymouth probably about the end of 
August, 1633.* He resumed his labors at Salem, as an 
assistant to Mr. Skelton, though, for some cause, he was 
not elected to any office till after Mr, Skelton's death. 
Perhaps the expectation of this event induced the church 
to delay the election of Mr. Williams. 

Soon after his return to Salem, his watchful love of lib- 
erty seems to have excited him, together with the venera- 
ble Mr. Skelton, to express some apprehension of the ten- 
dencies of a meeting, which several ministers had estab- 
lished, for the ostensible and probably real purpose of 
mutual improvement, and consultation respecting their du- 
ties, and the interests of religion. Winthrop thus states, 
under the date of November, 1633 : 

" The ministers in the Bay and Saugus did meet once a 
fortnight, at one of their houses, by course, where some 



* There is a str.T.n2;e confusion in the statements of different writers 
respcctino; the duration of Mr. Williams' stay at Plymouth, and the 
date of his removal. Morton says, that ho preached at Pl3'mouth 
about three years, and was dismissed in 1634. Baylies repeats this 
statement. Hutchinson says, that he remained at Plymouth three 
or four years ; ('oi ton Mather says two years, and Dr. Bentley 
states, that he returned to S;ilem before the end of the year 1(532. 
But Mr. Backus supposf^s the time of his removal from Plymouth to 
have been in August. 1(>33. *'His first child was born there the first 
week in August, l(j3.>, (Providence Records) and Mr. Cotton, who 
arrived at Boston the fourth ol" September following, says, he had 
removed into the Bay before his arrival." (Tenet Washed, part 2, 
]). 4.) It is certain, from Winthrop's Journal, vol. i. p. 117, that Mr. 
Williams had returned to Salem previously to November, 1G33, for 
undtu- that date Winthrop says, that he '• was removed from Ply- 
mouth thither, (l>ut not in any office, though he exercised by way of 
prophecy.") Tlie expression imj)]ies, that he had recfntbj removed, 
and this agrees with the supposition that he returned to Sniem in 
August. 



56 MEMOIROF 

question of moment was debated. Mr. Skelton, the pastor 
of Salem, and Mr. Williams, who was removed from Ply- 
mouth thither, (but not in any office, though he exercised 
by way of prophecy) took some exception against it, as 
fearing it might grow in time to a presbytery or superin- 
tendency, to the prejudice of the churches' liberties. But 
this fear was without cause ; for they were all clear in that 
point, that no church or person can have power over 
another church ; neither did they, in their meetings, exer- 
cise any such jurisdiction." Vol. i. p. 116. 

It may be true, that the fears of Mr. Skelton and Mr. 
Williams were without cause, and, in our own times, such 
meetings of ministers are held, with much advantage to 
themselves and to the churches, and without exciting 
alarm. But before we decide, that Mr. Williams was un- 
necessarily apprehensive, and especially before we accuse 
him of a turbulent and factious temper, it deserves inquiry,, 
whether his experience of ecclesiastical usurpation and in- 
tolerance in England might not justify the fear, that the 
frequent consultations of the ministers were not ominous of 
good to the independence of the churches and to lib- 
erty of conscience. Mr. Skelton, however, seems to have 
been the principal in this opposition.* It may have been 
a good service to the cause of liberty and of religion. A 
watchful dread of encroachments on civil or religious free- 
dom is not useless, in any age. It was a prominent trait 
in the character of the colonists, before the revolution, and 
it will always be cherished by a free people. It is a salu- 
tary provision, like the sense of fear in the human bosom. 
It may sometimes cause an unnecessary alarm, as the 
watchman may arouse the city with an unfounded report 
of danger. But these evils are preferable to the incautious 
negligence, which fears not peril, and thus invites it. 

But more important causes of offence to the magistrates 
and the clergy were soon found, in the sentiments and con- 
duct of Mr. Williams. So early as December 27, 1633, 
we find the General Court again convened to consult re- 
specting him : 

" December 27. The Governor and Assistants met at 

* Mr. Skelton's name is first mentioned by Winthrop, and Dr. 
Bentley (1 His. Col. vi. p. 248) attributes to Mr. Skelton' the open 
opposition 



ROGER WILLIAMS, 57 

Boston, and took into consideration a treatise, which Mr. 
Williams (then of Salem) had sent to them, and which he 
had formerly written to the Governor and Council of Ply- 
mouth, wherein, among other things, he disputed their 
right to the lands they possessed here, and concluded that, 
claiming by the King's grant, they could have no title, nor 
otherwise, except they compounded with the natives. For 
this, taking advice with some of the most judicious minis- 
ters, (who much condemned Mr. Williams' error and pre- 
sumption) they gave order, that he should be convented at 
the next Court, to be censured, &lc. There were three 
passages chiefly whereat they were much offended : 1. for 
that he chargeth King James to have told a solemn public 
lie, because, in his patent, he blessed God that he was the 
first Christian prince that had discovered this land : 2. for 
that he chargeth him and others with blasphemy, for call- 
ing Europe Christendom, or the Christian world : 3. for 
that he did personally apply to our present King, Charles, 
these three places in the Revelations, viz : [blank.]* 

" Mr. Endicott being absent, the Governor wrote to him 
to let him know what was done, and withal added divers 
arguments to confute the said errors, wishing him to deal 
with Mr. Williams to retract the same, &c. Whereto he 
returned a very modest and discreet answer. Mr. Williams 
also wrote to the Governor, and also to him and the rest of 
the Council very submissively, professing his intent to have 
been only to have written for the private satisfaction of the 
Governor, &c. of Plymouth, without any purpose to have 
stirred any further in it, if the Governor here had not re- 
quired a copy of him ; withal offering his book, or any part 
of it, to be burnt. 

" At the next Court he ?i^peB.red penitently , and gave sat- 
isfaction of his intention and loyalty. So it was left, and 
nothing done in it." Vol. i. p. 122. 

The book, which occasioned these transactions, has not 



*'• Perhaps," says Mr. Savage, "the same expressions from an- 
other would have given less oifence. From Williams they were not 
at first received in the mildest, or even the most natural sense ; 
though further reflection satisfied the magistrates that his were not 
dangerous. The passages from the Apocalypse were probably not 
applied to the honor of the King; and I regret, therefore, that Win- 
throp did not preserve them." 
6 



58 MEMOIROF 

been preserved.* We know not in what terms Mr. Wil- 
liams uttered his offensive opinions. The doctrine which 
he maintained, that the charter from the King of England 
could not convey to the colonists the right to occupy the 
lands of the Indians, without their consent, is, in the high- 
est degree, honorable to bis head and his heart. He clearly 
saw the utter absurdity and injustice of the pretension, 
whether made by the Pope or by a Protestant monarch,, of 
sovereignty over other countries, merely on the ground of 
prior discovery, or of the barbarous and wandering charac- 
ter of the inhabitants. It may be a useful regulation 
among nations, that the first discoverers of a country shall 
possess a superior right to intercourse with the inhabitants 
for trade or other purposes. But no people, whether Pa- 
gans or Christians, can rightfully be subjected to a sway, 
to which they have not voluntarily submitted. This fun- 
damental principle of human rights applies to the Indians. 
They were independent tribes, and could, in no sense, be 
considered as the subjects of the King of England. The 
fact, that some of his vessels had sailed along their coasts, 
no more gave him a title to be their sovereign, than the 
passage of one of their canoes up the Thames would have 
transferred to Canonicus or Powhatan a claim to the crown 
of England. If the King possessed no jurisdiction over the 
Indians, he could not, of course, convey a title to their 
lands. It was this point on which Mr. Williams insisted 
with special earnestness. " His own account of this mat- 
ter," says Mr. Backus, (vol. i. p. 58,) " informs us, that the 
sin of the patents which lay so heavy on his mind was, that 
therein * Christian Kings (so called) are invested with a 
right, by virtue of their Christianity , to take and give away 
the lands and countries of other men.'f And he tells us, 

*It was probably this book, to which Mr. Coddington alluded, in 
his bitter letter against Mr. Williams, inserted at the close of Fox's 
Reply. Mr. W. is there charged with having ''written a quarto 
against the King's patent and authority." 

t A writer in the Nortli American Review, for October, 1830, p. 
404, says : '-The Kings of Europe did, in some instances, assert the 
right to subdue the natives by force, and to appropriate their terri- 
tory, without their consent, to the uses of the colonists. The King 
of Spain founded this right solely on the grant of the Pope, as the 
vicegerent of Christ upon earth. The Kings of England, in the six- 
teenth century, placed it on the superior claims, which Christians 
possessed over infidels." 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 59 

that this evil so deeply afflicted his soul, that ' before his 
troubles and banishment, he drew up a letter, not with- 
out the approbation of some of the chiefs of New-England, 
then tender also upon this point before God, directed unto 
the King himself, humbly acknowledging the evil of that 
PART of the patent, which respects the donation of lands,' " 
&LC* And the colonists themselves acted, generally, on 
the very principle which Mr. Williams advocated. They 
purchased the lands of the natives, for a trifling recom- 
pense, as it may seem to us, but such as satisfied the In- 
dians. Cotton Mather states, though he reckons it as a 
proof of civility , \h?ii ''notwithstanding the patent which 
they had for the country, they fairly purchased of the na- 
tives the several tracts of land which they afterwards pos- 
sessed."! Dr. Dwight asserts, that '' exclusively of the 
country of the Pequods, the inhabitants of Connecticut 
bought, unless I am deceived, every inch of ground con- 
tained within that colony, of its native proprietors. The 
people of Rhode-Island, Plymouth, Massachusetts and 
New-Hampshire, proceeded wholly in the same equitable 
manner. Until Philip's war, in 1675, not a single foot of 
ground was claimed or occupied by the colonists on any 
other score but that of fair purchase. "| These facts are 
honorable to the pilgrims, and assuredly Roger Williams is 
entitled to some praise for steadily advocating this policy 
from the beginning. He, perhaps, construed the patent 
with too much rigor. The King did not, it may be, mean 
all that his lofty royal style implied. In his patent to the 
Plymouth Company, he alludes to the " wonderful plague " 
which had raged among the natives, and left the " large 
and goodly territories deserted as it were by the natural in- 
habitants." He nevertheless calls himself the " sovereign 
lord " of the whole continent, and therefore by his '' special 
grace, mere motion, and certain knowledge," gives and 
grants to the Company a large part of the continent, from 
sea to sea, without intimating that any rights belonged to 
the natives. A warm friend to the Indians might easily 
construe such an instrument as a designed and flagrant 
usurpation of their rights. We have seen how the colonists 
of New-England practised under the patent, and Mr. Cot- 

* Reply to Cotton on the Bloody Tenet, pp. 276, 277. 
I Magnalia_, book i. c. v. § 5. X Travels^ vol. i. p. 167. 



60 MEMOIROF 

ton, in his reply to Roger Williams, affirms : "It was 
neither the King's intendment, nor the English planters', 
to take possession of the country by murder or by robbery, 
but either to take possession of the void places of the coun- 
try, by the law of nature, (for vacuum domicilium cedit oc- 
cupanti) or if we took any lands from the natives, it was 
by way of purchase and free consent. We have not our 
land merely by right of patent from the King, but that the 
natives are true owners of all that they possess or improve. 
Neither do I know any amongst us, that either then were, or 
now are, of another mind," Bloody Tenet Washed, p. 26. 

But this subject deserves a more full consideration than 
we can here give it. The suggestions now offered may 
suffice to exhibit the upright integrity and sound judgment 
which drew from Mr. Williams his declarations in favor of 
the natives. It seems, that his book discussed the abstract 
question, and probably it was called forth by some expres- 
sion of the opposite doctrine. It was not intended for the 
public eye, but was a private communication to the Gov- 
ernor and other gentlemen of Plymouth. He could not be 
charged with a public attack in this book on the charter. 
Nor is it certain, that he questioned the authority of the 
charter, so far as it could operate without an infringement 
of the rights of the Indians. He was, indeed, charged by 
Mr. Cotton (Hubbard, 210) with insisting that the charter 
ought to be returned to the King. This would certainly 
have been very unwise, but we can hardly suppose that Mr. 
Williams would carry his opposition to this unreasonable 
length. Winthrop does not intimate that any such opinion 
was expressed, and Mr. Cotton may have misunderstood 
Mr. Williams' real meaning. 

In regard to the passages which were construed as dis- 
respectful to the King, it may be sufficient to say, that his 
own words are not reported ; and at a meeting of the Court, 
in January, the magistrates and the clergy acknowledged 
that they had taken unnecessary offence. It is probable 
that they misunderstood him. Winthrop says, under date 
of January 24, 1633-4 : " The Governor and Council met 
again at Boston, to consider of Mr. Williams' letter, &.c. 
when, with the advice of Mr. Cotton and Mr. Wilson, and 
weighing his letter, and further considering of the aforesaid 
offensive passages in his book, (which being written in 



UOGER WILLIAMS. 61 

very obscure and implicative phrases, might well admit of 
doubtful interpretation,) they found the matters not to be so 
evil as at first they seemed. Whereupon they agreed, that, 
upon his retraction, &,c. or taking an oath of allegiance to 
the King, &lc. it should be passed over." Vol. i. p. 123. 

The conduct of Mr. Williams on this occasion was, it 
must be acknowledged, mild and conciliatory. He offered 
to burn the offensive book, though he did not retract his 
opinions. He wrote to the Court, we are told, " submis- 
sively," and afterwards appeared before them ''penitently," 
and furnished satisfactory evidence of his " loyalty." We 
cannot determine, how far these expressions may be con- 
strued to imply an acknowledgment of error on the part 
of Mr. Williams ; but they are valuable, as a proof that he 
was not so obstinate and contumacious as the world have 
been taught to regard him. 

He was now permitted, for a while, to continue his min- 
istry at Salem, without interruption from the magistrates. 
He was popular as a preacher, and the people at Salem be- 
came strongly attached to him. Mr. Skelton died in Au- 
gust, 1634, and Mr. AVilliams was soon after invited to be- 
come the teacher of the church. The magistrates sent to 
the church a request, that they would not ordain him ; but 
the church persisted, and Mr. Williams was regularly in- 
troduced to the office of teacher. 

This *' great contempt of authority," as it was afterwards 
pronounced to be by the magistrates and ministers, was not 
forgotten. We shall soon see how it was punished. 

We may here take notice of two charges against Mr. 
Williams, which, trivial as they are, have been often al- 
leged to his disadvantage. It has been said, that he 
preached on the use of veils by females, and insisted that 
they should wear them in religious assemblies. We have 
no record of his real sentiments on this frivolous subject. 
Dr. Bentley asserts, that Mr. Endicott had introduced it 
before Mr. Williams arrived, and that the latter adopted 
the notion, rather to gratify Mr. Endicott and Mr. Skelton, 
than because he felt any interest in it himself.* And if it 

* Mr. Endicott's zeal on this point may be learned from the follow- 
ing incident, related by Winthrop : " March 7, 1633. At the lecture 
al Boston a question was propounded about veils. Mr. Cotton con- 
cluded, thai where (by the custom of the place) they were not a 
6* 



62 MEMOIROF 

were true, that he was the author of the custom, and wasted 
his time in establishing it, we should regard it as a venial 
weakness, springing from a reverence for the Scriptures, 
and a desire for the decorum of public worship. Before 
we condemn him, we should call to mind, that other di- 
vines of great name in New-England, such as President 
Chauncy and John Elliot, preached vehemently against 
wigs, and that, in 1649, the magistrates signed a grave 
protest against the custom among men of wearing long 
hair, and requested the clergy to preach against it, " as a 
thing uncivil and unmanly, whereby men do deform them- 
selves, and offend sober and modest men, and do corrupt 
good manners."* 

The other charge is of more importance. It is said, that 
in consequence of Mr. Williams' preaching, Mr, Endicott 
cut the cross out of the military colors, as a relic of anti- 
christian superstition. This act was doubtless unjustifia- 
ble, because the colors were established by the authority of 
the King, and ought to have been viewed as a merely civil 
regulation. But there is no evidence that Mr. Williams 
advised the measure. It seems rather to have been a prac- 
tical application, by Mr. Endicott, of the doctrine maintain- 
ed by Mr* Williams on the unlawfulness of the ceremonies 
and symbols which had been used in the service of idolatry 
and of Popery. The great controversy between the Puri- 
tans and the Prelates in England mainly turned on the use 
of the surplice, and the sign of the cross, and other Popish 
ceremonies, which the English Church retained. The 
Puritans would not conform to the church, on account of 
these ceremonies, which they regarded as abominable relics 
of Popery. It was a principle among them, on which they 

sign of the woman's subjection, they were not commanded by the 
apostle. Mr. Endicott opposed, and did maintain it by the general 
arguments brought by the apostle. After some debate, the Governor, 
perceiving it to grow to some earnestness, interposed, and so it 
brake off." Vol. i. p. 125. 

Hutchinson (vol. i. p. 379) says, on the authority of Hubbard, that 
" Mr. Cotton, of Boston, happening to preach at Salem, soon after 
this custom began, he convinced his hearers that it had no sufficient 
foundation in the Scriptures. His sermon had so good an effect, 
that they were all ashamed of their veils, and never appeared cover- 
ed with thejn afterwards." 

^ Hutchinson, vol. i. p, 142 



ROGEK. WILLIAMS. 6^1 

acted, that ''such rites and ceremonies as had been abused 
to idolatry, and manifestly tended to lead men back to 
Popery and superstition, were no longer indifferent, but to 
be rejected as unlawful."* 

Mr. Williams probably preached this doctrine at Salem, 
and Mr. Endicott deemed it his duty, as a magistrate, to 
remove from the colors the cross, which was the favorite 
symbol of Popery. t Dr. Bentley asserts, that Mr. Williams 
was the " innocent, though the real cause of it. "J Mr. 
Endicott was summoned before the Court, admonished, 
and declared incapable, for one year, of holding any public 
office, as a punishment for the act ; but neither he, nor the 
Court, appear to have attributed any blame to Mr. Williams, 
which we may, without a want of charity, suppose they 
would have done, if there had been any reasonable pre- 
tence. 

* Neal's Hist. Puritans, vol. i. p. 184. 

t The question about the lawfulness of the cross caused much 
agitation and controversy. '• Some of our chief worthies," says Cot- 
ton Mather, (Magnalia, b. vii. c. ii. § 9) ''maintained their different 
persuasions, with weapons indeed no more dangerous than easy pens, 
and effects no worse than a little harmless and learned inkshed." 
Mr. Hooker wrote a tract of nearly thirteen pages, in defence of the 
cross. Winthrop says, that Jie Court were '^ douljtful of the lawful 
use of the cross in an ensign." The militia refused to march with 
the mutilated banners. The matter was finally settled, by leaving 
ovit the cross in the colors for the trained bands, and retaining it in 
the banners of the castle and of vessels. 

X 1 His. Col. vi. p. 246. 



64 M E M o 1 It o f 



CHAPTER V. 



Proceedings which led to his banishment — freeman's oath — various 
charges against him — sentence — birth of his second child — leaves 
Salem for Narraganset Bay — review of the causes of his banish- 
ment. 

We will now proceed to narrate the measures which 
issued in the banishment of Mr. Williams. We shall fol- 
low the guidance of Winthrop, as to the facts, because this 
truly great man wrote without the angry temper which 
most of the early writers on the subject exhibited. 

" 1634, Nov. 27. The Court was informed, that Mr. 
Williams, of Salem, had broken his promise to us, in teach- 
ing publicly against the King's patent, and our great sin in 
claiming right thereby to this country, &lc. and for usual 
terming the churches of England antichristian. We grant- 
ed summons to him for his appearance at the next Court." 
Winthrop, vol. i. p. 151. 

We are not informed of the terms of Mr. Williams' 
promise, here referred to, and cannot decide how far he 
had broken it. The epithet which he is said to have ap- 
plied to the churches in England, might, in his judgment, 
have been well deserved by many of them. He, of course, 
referred to the established churches, then practising, as 
the Puritans believed, idolatrous ceremonies, and under the 
direction of wicked men. Mr. Cotton, in his "Bloody 
Tenet Washed," (p. 109) acknowledges it to be a source of 
grief to himself and others, "that there is yet so much of 
those notorious evils still continuing in the parishes, (in 
England) worldliness, ignorance, superstition, scoffing, 
swearing, cursing, whoredom, drunkenness, theft, lying ; I 
may add, also, murder, and malignity against the godly, 
suffered to thrust themselves into the fellowship of the 
churches, and to sit down with the saints at the Lord's ta- 
ble." AVe may be allowed to think, that Roger Williams 
was not remarkably bigoted, if he did call such churches 
as these antichristian, and deem it a sin to hold fellowship 
with them. He obeyed the summons of the Court : 



ROGERWILLIAMS, 65 

'' 1635, Mo. 2, 30.* The Governor and Assistants sent 
for Mr. Williams. The occasion was, for that he had taught 
publicly, that a magistrate ought not to tender an oath to 
an unregenerate man, for that we thereby have communion 
with a wicked man in the worship of God, and cause him 
to take the name of God in vain. He was heard before all 
the ministers, and very clearly confuted. Mr. Endicott 
was at first of the same opinion, but he gave place to the 
truth. Vol. i. p. 157. 

We may repeat, here, what ought to be constantly borne 
in mind, that the statements of Mr. Williams' opinions come, 
not from himself, but from his opponents. We need not 
insist on the liability to mistake, in cases where a man's 
sentiments are thus disjoined from all those explanations 
and arguments with which he would himself have accom- 
panied them. In the present case, we are not informed of 
the precise views of Mr. Williams respecting oaths. t He 

* That is, April 30. Winthrop adopted, a few months before, this 
mode of denoting time. It seems to have arisen from a desire to 
avoid the Roman nomenclature, as heathenish. Perhaps an aversion 
to the Romish church had a share in producing the change. The 
custom continued for more than fifty years, when it was gradually 
abandoned, except by the Friends, or Quakers, and Hutchinson 
thinks, that the popular prejudice against them hastened the decline 
of the custom. The months were called Ist, 2d, «fec. beginning with 
March, and the days of the week were designated in the same way. 

t Since these remarks were written, the author has found in Mr. 
Williams' '' Hireling Ministry none of Chiist's," an "Appendix as 
touching oaths, a query." This Appendix is as follows : "Although 
it be lawful (in case) for Christians to invocate the name of the Most 
High in swearing 5 yet since it is a part of his holy worship, and 
therefore proper unto such as are his true worshippers in spirit and 
in truth ; and persons may as well be forced unto any part of the 
worship of God as unto this, since it ought not to be used but most 
solemnly, and in solemn and weighty cases, and (ordinarily) in such 
as are not otherwise determinablt? ; since it is the voice of the two 
great lawgivers from God, Moses and Christ Jesus, that in the 
mouth of two or three witnesses (not swearing) every word shall 
stand : Whether the enforcing of oaths and spiritual covenants upon 
a nation, promiscuously, and the constant enforcing of all persons 
to practise the worship in the most trivial and common cases in all 
courts (together with the ceremonies of book and holding up the 
hand, &c.) be not a prostituting of the holy name of the Most High 
to every unclean lip, and that on slight occasions, and a taking of it 
by millions, and so many millions of times in vain, and whether it 
be not a provoking of the eyes of his jealousy who hath said, that he 
will not hold him (what him oj them soevex) guiltless, that taketh 



66 M E M O 1 R O P 

had taken the freeman's oath in 1631. Many others have 
entertained doubts of the propriety of oaths, in any case, 
and our laws allow an individual, who feels these scruples, 
to substitute an affirmation. The unlawfulness of all oaths 
might be plausibly argued, from the words of our Saviour, 
Matthew, v. 34, and from those of the Apostle James, v. 12. 
On this ground, however, they would be equally unlawful 
to all men, and the distinction which Mr. Williams is said 
to have made between Christians and unregenerate men 
could not be sustained. If, however, an oath were consider- 
ed, as he viewed it, as a religious act, implying devout 
reverence for the Supreme Being, a fear of His displeasure 
and desire of His favor, it would not be easy to show how an 
irreligious man can sincerely take an oath. Mr. Williams 
had probably seen oaths taken in England with such scan- 
dalous levity, and used for purposes so iniquitous, as to 
awaken in his mind a strong aversion to their being admin- 
istered indiscriminately to the pious and the profane. We 
may, nevertheless, admit, that he was unnecessarily scru- 
pulous on this point, without impeaching either his piety or 
his judgment. The ministers seem to have been satisfied 
witii their success in confuting him. It is usual for dis- 
putants to claim the victory. Perhaps if Mr. Williams had 
recorded the event, he might have told us of the unimpaired 
vigor of his arguments. We have reason to believe, how- 
ever, that the offensiveness of Mr. Williams' opinions re- 
specting oaths consisted not so much in his abstract ob- 
jections to their use, as in his opposition to the new oath 



his name in vain." It seems, from this paragraph, that he consider- 
ed taking an oath to be an act of worship ; that a Christian might 
take one on proper occasions, though not for trivial causes ; that an 
irrehgious man could not sincerely perform this act of worship ; and 
that no man ought to be forced to perform this act, any more than 
any other act of worship. His own practice was agreeable to his 
theory. He says, in his George Fox digged out of his Burrowes, (Ap- 
pendix, pp. 59, 60) ''cases have befallen myself in the Chancery in 
England, &c. of the loss of great sums, which I chose to bear, 
through the Lord's help, rather than yield to the formality (then and 
still in use) in God's worship, [alluding, perhaps, to the use of a 
book, holding up the hand, &c.] though I offered to swear, in weighty 
cases, by the name of God, as in the presence of God, and to attest 
or call God to witness ; and the judges told me they would rest in 
my testimony and way of swearing, but they could not dispense with 
me without an act of Parliament." 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 67 

of fidelity which the Court thought proper to require of the 
citizens. Mr. Cotton* states the case thus: "The magis- 
trates and other members of the General Court, upon intel- 
ligence of some Episcopal and malignant practices against 
the country, made an order of Court, to take trial of the 
fidelity of the people, not by imposing upon them, but by 
offering to them, an oath of fidelity, that in case any should 
refuse to take it, they might not betrust them with place of 
public charge and command. This oath, when it came 
abroad, he (Mr. Williams) vehemently withstood, and dis- 
suaded sundry from it, partly because it was, he said, 
Christ's prerogative to have his oflice established by an 
oath ; partly because an oath was part of God's worship, 
and God's worship was not to be put upon carnal persons, 
as he conceived many of the people to be. So the Court 
was forced to desist from that proceeding." 

The reasons assigned by Mr. Cotton for Mr. Williams' 
opposition to the oath are, we suspect, not all the reasons 
which really moved him to this course. He probably 
viewed the act of the Court in absolving the citizens from 
the oath which they had already taken, and substituting 
another, as an illegal assumption of power. It might be 
understood to claim for the Court an authority superior to 
the charter, for it omitted the clause of the former oath, 
which required of the subject obedience to laws which 
should be "lawfully" made by the Court, and, instead of 
it, obliged men to swear to submit to the "7chohsome" reg- 
ulations which might be established. As the charter pro- 
hibited the passage of laws contrary to the laws of Eng- 
land, the first oath bound the citizen to obey the Court 
only while they adhered to the charter ; but the new oath 
required submission to all the "wholesome" acts of the 
government, who were, of course, the sole judges of the 
wholesomeness of their own measures. Mr. Cotton says, 
that the oath was only offered, not imposed, but it was, by 
a subsequent act of the Court, enforced on every man 
above the age of sixteen years, on penalty of punishment at 
the discretion of the Court. t 

To this oath, under such circumstances, Mr. Williams, 
as a friend of liberty, was opposed. He would not re- 

* Tenet Washed, pp. 28, 20. t Backus, vol. i. p. 62. 



68 M E M a I R O F 

nounce an oath which he had taken, and substitute another, 
which bound him to obey whatever laws the magistrates 
might deem wholesome. The reason assigned for the new 
oath, moreover, was to guard against "Episcopal and ma- 
lignant practices." This gave it the appearance of a law 
to restrain liberty of conscience ; and Mr. Williams' prin- 
ciples were totally opposed to any measure which tended to 
that result, however specious its professed object might be. 

If these views are correct, Mr. Williams' opposition to 
oaths in this case resolves itself into an inflexible adherence 
to his great doctrine of unfettered religious liberty ; a doc- 
trine which, more than any thing else, drew upon him the 
jealousy and dislike of the magistrates and the clergy. 

In July, he was again summoned to Boston. 

" 1635, Mo. 5, 8. At the General Court, Mr. Williams, 
of Salem, was summoned and did appear. It was laid to 
his charge, that being under question before the magistracy 
and churches for divers dangerous opinions, viz : 1. that 
the magistrate ought not to punish the breach of the first 
table, otherwise than in such cases as did disturb the civil 
peace ; 2. that he ought not to tender an oath to an unre- 
generate man ; 3. that a man ought not to pray with such, 
though wife, child, &c. ; 4. that a man ought not to give 
thanks after the sacrament, nor after meat, &lc. ; and that 
the other churches were about to write to the church of 
Salem to admonish him of these errors ; notwithstanding, 
the church had since called him to [the] office of teacher. 
Much debate was about these things. The said opinions 
were adjudged by all, magistrates and ministers, (who were 
desired to be present) to be erroneous and very dangerous, 
and that the calling of him to office, at that time, was 
judged a great contempt of authority. So, in fine, time 
was given to him and the church of Salem to consider 
of these things till the next General Court, and then either 
to give satisfaction to the Court, or else to expect the sen- 
tence ; it being professedly declared by the ministers (at 
the request of the Court to give their advice) that he who 
should obstinately maintain such opinions (whereby a 
church might run into heresy, apostacy, or tyranny, and 
yet the civil magistrate could not intermeddle) were to be 
removed, and that the other churches ought to request the 
magistrates so to do." Vol. i. p. 162. 



R O G E R W I L I, I A M F5 69 

The first tv\^o of these charges have been considered. It 
will be observed, that the Governor has candidly acknowl- 
edged, that Mr. Williams allowed it to be right for the civil 
magistrate to punish breaches of the first table, when they 
disturbed the civil peace. This fact exempts him from 
the charge of opposition to the civil authority. 

The third charge, if it is a true representation of the 
opinion of Mr. Williams, shows that his judgment in this 
particular was biased, by an idea of the impropriety of 
uniting in religious worship with those who cannot cordially 
participate in the service. He thus carried to an extreme 
a principle, which the state of things in England had fre- 
quently called into exercise. He probably recollected, that 
the book of common prayer implied that all present adopt- 
ed the petitions as their own ; and as he knew that many 
who pretended to join in the worship were notoriously 
profligate, he might be impelled to the opposite error.* 

*Iii his " Hireling Ministry none of Christ's," he says, on this 
subject, " we may hinder and harden poor souls against repentance, 
when, by fellowship in prayer with them as with saints, we per- 
suade them of their [already] blessed state of Christianity, and that 
they are new born, the sons and daughters of the living God." p. 22. 
This argument is unsound, because we do not " hold fellowship " 
with tne impenitent, by praying in their presence ; but the argument 
shows Mr. Williams' conscientious regard for the welfare of men. 

It is worthy of remark, here, that Avhile Winthrop states this- 
charge as a general proposition, Hubbard (207) and Morton (153) 
assert, that Mr. Williams refused to '' pray or give thanks at meals 
with his own wife or any of his family." This was probably an in- 
ference from Mr. Williams' abstract doctrine. Several of the charges 
against him might be thus traced to the disposition to draw infer- 
ences. A curious instance is given by Cotton Mather. (Magnalia, 
b. vii. ch. ii. § 6.) Mr. Williams, he says, '-complained in open 
Court, that he was wronged by a slanderous report, as if he held it 
unlav/ful for a father to call upon his child to eat his meat. Mr. 
Hooker, then present, being moved hereupon to speak something, 
replied, '-Why, you will say as much a,gain, if you stand to your 
own principles, or be driven to say nothing at all." Mr. Williams, 
expressing his confidence that he should never say it, Mr. Hooker 
proceeded : " If it be unlawful to call an unre generate person to 
pray, since it is an action of God's worship, then it is unlawful for 
your unregenerate child to pray for a blessing upon his own meat. 
If it be unlawful for him to pray for a blessing upon his ment. it is 
unlawful for him to eat it, for it is sanctified by prayer, and without 
prayer ansanctified. (1 Tim. iv. 4,5.) If it be unlawful for him to 
eat it, it is unlawful for you to call upon him to eat it, for it is un- 
lawful for you to call xrpon him to sin." Our fathers were adepts in. 
7 



70 MEMOIROF 

The fourth charge seems too frivolous for notice. AVhat 
right have men to insist on ceremonies which the Bible 
does not enjoin, and which are in themselves indifferent ? 
If, as is not improbable,* there was an attempt to intro- 
duce among the churches a uniformity touching these little 
observances, it is not wonderful that Mr. Williams resisted 
them. He had seen too much of this system in England, 
to be willing to submit to it in America. 

As the Salem church adhered to Mr. Williams, notwith- 
standing the well-known displeasure of the magistrates and 
the clergy, a singular mode of punishing them for their 
contumacy was soon adopted. Three days after the ses- 
sion of the Court just mentioned, we are told by Winthrop, 
that the "Salem men had preferred a petition at the last 
General Court, for some land in Marblehead Neck, which 
they did challenge as belonging to their town ; but, because 
they had chosen Mr. Williams their teacher, while he stood 
under question of authority, and so offered contempt to the 
magistrates, &c. their petition was refused till, &c. Upon 
this the church of Salem write to other churches to admon- 
ish the magistrates of this as a heinous sin, and likewise 
the deputies ; for which, at the next General Court, their 
deputies were not received until they should give satisfac- 
tion about the letter." Vol. i. p. 164. 

Here is a candid avowal, that justice was refused to 
Salem, on a question of civil right, as a punishment for the 
conduct of the church and pastor, A volume could not 
more forcibly illustrate the danger of a connection between 
the civil and ecclesiastical power. The land, in question, 
was granted, after Mr. Williams was banished. The 



logic. Mr. Hooker's syllogisms do not now seem very convincing, 
but they must have puzzled Mr. Williams, if he held the notions as- 
cribed to him. Accordingl}^, Cotton Mather adds, that '• Mr. Wil- 
liams chose to hold his peace, rather than to make any answer." 
We may wonder, nevertheless, that Mr. Williams has not been ac- 
cused of starving his children, to the horror of succeeding genera- 
tions ! 

* The Court, in March. 1634-5, passed an act, "■ entreating of the 
brethren and elders of every church within Ujeir jurisdiction, that 
they will consult and advise of one uniforjn order of discipline in 
the churches, agreeable to the Scriptures, and then to consider how 
far the magistrates are bound to interpose for the preservation of that 
uniformity and the peace of the churches." 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 71 

postponement was evidently designed, and probably had 
some effect, to induce the people of Salem to consent to 
their pastor's removal. 

The church at Salem felt this to be a flagrant wrong, 
and they naturally wrote to the other churches, to warn 
them of this dangerous attack upon their liberty, and to re- 
quest them to admonish the magistrates, as members of 
the churches, of the criminality of their conduct. It is 
difficult to see, why the church at Salem were not fully 
justified in this procedure. 

The health of Mr. Williams failed under the pressure of 
his trials and duties. He declared, " that his life was in 
danger, by his excessive labors, preaching thrice a week, 
by labors night and day in the field; and by travels night 
and day, to go and come from the Court." We need not 
be surprised, therefore, at the next notice of him by Win- 
throp, under the date of August 16 : 

*' Mr. Williams, pastor of Salem, being sick and not able 
to speak, wrote to his church a protestation, that he could 
not communicate with the churches in the Bay ; neither 
would he communicate with them, except they would refuse 
communion with the rest : but the whole church was griev- 
ed herewith." Vol. i. p. 166. 

Solomon has said, that "oppression maketh a wise man 
mad ;"* and it is not wonderful that it should impel a sick 
man to write such a letter as the one here alluded to. Mr. 
Williams felt deeply that he had been injured, and that the 
spiritual fellowship between him and the churches had 
suffered a melancholy interruption. He therefore declared, 
that he could not commune with them, and he insisted that 
the church in Salem should refuse such a communion. In 
this conduct he was doubtless wrong, yet who will venture 
to say, that if he had been placed in the situation of Mr. 
Williams, he would have maintained a more subdued spirit? 

Matters now rapidly approached a crisis. The magis- 
trates punished with rigor the offence of the Salem church, 
or rather of Mr. Williams, in writing the letter to the other 
churches. Mr. Endicott was committed, for justifying that 
letter, and was not discharged, till he acknowledged his of- 
fence. The following extract from the records of the Court 
shows a case, which savours much of the English Court of 

* EcclesiasteSjvii. 7. 



rZ MEMOIR OF 

High Commission : '' Mr. Samuel Sharpe is enjoined to 
appear at the next Particular Court, to answer for the letter 
that came from the church of Salem, as also to bring the 
names of those that will justify the same, or else to acknow- 
ledge his offence, under his own hand, for his own par- 
ticular."* 

In October, Mr. Williams was called before the Court for 
the last time : 

"At this General Court, Mr. Williams, the teacher of Salem, 
was again con vented, and all the ministers in the Bay being 
desired to be present, he was charged with the said two let- 
ters, that to the churches, complaining of the magistrates 
for injustice, extreme oppression, &c. and the other to his 
own church, to persuade them to renounce communion 
with all the churches in the Bay, as full of antichristian 
pollution, &-C. He justified both these letters, and main- 
tained all his opinions; and, being offered further conference 
or disputation, and a month's respite, he chose to dispute 
presently. So Mr. Hooker was chosen to dispute with him, 
but could not reduce him from any of his errors. So, the 
next morning, the Court sentenced him to depart out of our 
jurisdiction within six weeks, all the ministers, save one, 
approving the sentence ; and his own church had him under 
question also for the same cause ; end he, at his return home, 
refused communion with his own church, who openly dis- 
claimed his errors, and wrote an humble submission to the 
•magistrates, acknowledging their fault in joining with Mr. 
Williams in that letter to the churches against them," &.c. 
Vol. i. p. 171. 

The sentence was in these terms : " Whereas Mr. Roger 
Williams, one of the elders of the church of Salem, hath 
broached and divulged divers new and dangerous opinions, 
against the authority of magistrates ; as also writ letters of 
defamation, both of the magistrates and churches here, and 
that before any conviction, and yet maintaineth the same 
without any retractation ; it is therefore ordered, that the 
said Mr. Williams shall depart out of this jurisdiction within 
six weeks now next ensuing, which, if he neglect to perform, 
it shall be lawful for the Governor and two of the magis- 

* Winthrop, voL i. p, 167, Note. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 73 

trates to send him to some place out of this jurisdiction, not 
to return any more without license from the Court."* 

The conduct of the church at Salem is to be ascribed to 
the severe measures of the magistrates, rather than to hos- 
tility to Mr. Williams. Many of them accompanied or fol- 
lowed him in his exile. Neal, in his History of New-Eng- 
land, acknowledges, that when he was banished, *' the whole 
town of Salem was in an uproar, for he was esteemed an 
honest, disinterested man , and of popular talents in the pulpit." 

Mr. Williams received permission to remain at Salem till 
spring, but because he would not refrain, in his own house, 
from uttering his opinions, the Court resolved to send him 
to England, in order to remove, as far as possible, the infec- 
tion of his principles. Happily for themselves, and for the 
country, their design was defeated. 

"11 mo. January. The Governor and Assistants met at 
Boston to consider about Mr. Williams, for that they were 
credibly informed, that, notwithstanding the injunction laid 
upon him (upon the liberty granted him to stay till the 
spring,) not to go about to draw others to his opinions, he 
did use to entertain company in his house, and to preach to 
them, even of such points as he had been censured for ; and 
it was agreed to send him into England by a ship then ready 
to depart. The reason was, because he had drawn above 
twenty persons to his opinion, and they were intended to 
erect a plantation about the Narraganset Bay, from whence 
the infection would easily spread into these churches, (the 
people being many of them much taken with the apprehen- 
sion of his godliness.) Whereupon a warrant was sent to 
him to come presently to Boston to be shipped, &.c. He 
returned answer (and divers of Salem came with it,) that 
he could not come without hazard of his life, &c. Where- 
upon a pinnace was sent with commission to Capt. Under- 
bill, &c. to apprehend him, and carry him aboard the ship, 
(which then rode at Nantasket;) but, when they came at 
his house, they found he had been gone three days before ; 
but whither they could not learn. 

" He had so far prevailed at Salem, as many there, (espe- 
cially of devout women) did embrace his opinions, and se- 

* Winthrop places the banishment under the date of October, but 
the Colonial Records, (I. 1G3) state, that it took place November 3, 
1635. 

7* 



74 MEMoiia oip 

parated from the churches, for this cause, that some of their 
members, going into England, did hear the ministers there, 
and when they came home the churches here held com- 
munion with them." Vol. i. p. 175. 

Mr. Williams had received notice of the design of the 
Court, and had left Salem, in quost of a quiet refuge 
in the neighborhood of Narraganset Bay. It appears, 
that Governor Winthrop had privately advised him to leave 
the colony, as a measure, which the public peace required, 
and by which the personal interests of Mr. Williams might 
ultimately be best promoted. The good of the Indians, 
also, was a motive which operated on both their minds. Mr. 
Williams says, in a letter which has already been quoted : 
*' It pleased the Most High to direct my steps into this Bay, by 
the loving private advice of the ever honored soul, Mr. John 
Winthrop, the grandfather, who, though he were carried 
with the stream for my banishment, yet he tenderly loved 
me to his last breath." The same fact is asserted, in the 
letter to Major Mason,* and the advice of Governor Win- 
throp is ascribed to " many high, and heavenly, and public 
ends." The friendship of the Governor was manifested on 
various occasions, and he afterwards united with Mr. Wil- 
liams in the purchase of the island of Prudence in Narra- 
ganset Bay, 

The removal, however, if it might on general grounds 
have been expedient, was not now optional. Without con- 
sidering the justice or injustice of his banishment, there was 
<^ertain]y great hardship in being forced from his home in 
the middle of winter. His second daughter was born in 
the latter part of October, 1635,t and was consequently an 
infant less than three months old, while his eldest child was 
but a little more than two years of age. The mother and 
her two infants he left behind. His house and land at Salem 
he mortgaged, to raise money for the supply of his wants. i; 



* See Appendix C. 

t Backus, vol. i. p. 516. He called tliis daughter Freeborn. This 
was in the taste of tlie times. The first three children christened in 
Boston church were named Joy, Recompense and Pity. It is worthy 
of remark, that the name Freeborn was given, while the father was 
the object of what he doubtless thought oppression. It shows his in- 
domitable spirit. 

t MSS. Letter. 



R O G E R W I L L I A M S , 75 

With a heavy heart must this exiled husband and father, 
and this affectionate pastor, have parted from his family 
and flock, and plunged into the wilderness, to endure the 
wintry storms, and to try the hospitality of the savages. 

We have thus briefly examined the reasons assigned by 
the mild and candid Winthrop for the expulsion of Mr. 
Williams from Massachusetts. We have seen, that these 
reasons related almost entirely to opinions, which the mag- 
istrates thought to be dangerous, and which the clergy op- 
posed as tending to schism. It is satisfactory to observe, how- 
ever, that these opinions did not refer to any of the great 
principles of the Gospel. The religions doctrines which 
Mr. Williams preached before his banishment were the same 
as those of Cotton and Hooker. He was not accused, while 
at Plymouth or at Salem, of any deviation from the estab- 
lished principles of the churches, on points of faith, much 
less was there any impeachment of his moral character. It 
is confessed, by the most bitter of his opponents, that both 
at Plymouth and at Salem, he was respected and beloved, as 
a pious man, and able minister. 

What was there, then, it may be inquired, in the opinions 
of Mr, Williams, which was so offensive to the rulers in 
church and state ? His denial of the right to possess the 
lands of the Indians without their own consent, needed not 
to disturb the colonists, for they purchased their lands from 
the natives. His ideas of the unlawfulness of oaths, and of 
the impropriety of praying with unregenerate persons, and 
other harmless notions of this kind, were surely too unim- 
portant to excite the fears and provoke the ire of the gov- 
ernment. We are led to the conclusion, that the cause of 
Mr. Williams' banishment is to be found in the great prin- 
ciple which has immortalized his name, that the civil 

POWER HAS NO JURISDICTION OVER THE CONSCIENCE. This 

noble doctrine, which the Scriptures clearly teach, and 
which reason itself proclaims, was, at that time, viewed, by 
most men, to be as heterodox, in morals, as the Copernican 
theory was considered by the Inquisition to be false in philos- 
ophy ; and he who maintained it was liable to the fate of Ga- 
lileo. The Papists abhorred it, for it would have subverted 
the Papal throne. The English Church rejected it, for it 
would have wrested from the hierarchy its usurped autho- 
rity, and led the Church away from the throne of an earthly 



76 M E M O 1 R D F 

monarch to the footstool of the King of kings, as her 
only head and sovereign. The Puritans themselves dis- 
owned it, for they were so firmly convinced of the truth of 
their doctrines, that they deemed him, who was so obstinate 
as not to embrace them, to be worthy of punishment for acting 
in opposition to his own conscience.* They refused to con- 
form to the ceremonies of the English Church, but it was 
because they believed those ceremonies to be idolatrous, and 
not because they denied to men the power to enforce the 
belief of doctrines and the practice of rites. They opposed 
the Prelates, but they believed that a similar sway might 
be safely intrusted to their own hands. They resisted and 
for a while triumphed over the Lords Bishops, but they for- 
got that the despotism of the Lords Brethren, asBlackstone 
termed them, might be quite as intolerable. They did not 
understand the nature of that liberty which the Gospel be- 
stows. They were misled by the analogies which they drew 
from the Mosaic institutions, and felt it to be their duty 
to extirpate heresy, with as unsparing rigor, as the Jews were 
required to exercise against those who despised or violated 
their ritual. 

The character of the Puritans has been greatly misun- 
derstood on this point, and there has been much common- 
place declamation respecting their bigotry and inconsis- 
tency in persecuting others, after having suffered persecu- 
tion themselves. But a candid mind, which understands 
their principles, will not, while it must lament and condemn 
their conduct, use the language of harsh censure. They 
were so far from believing, that liberty of conscience in re- 
ligious concerns ought to be extended to all men, that they 
regarded toleration as a crime. They argued, that they ought 
to promote truth, and oppose error, by all the methods in 
their power. If they were able to suppress false doctrines, 
it was, they believed, a solemn duty to God to employ force, 
if necessary, for their suppression. They thought, that he 
who permitted error to be believed and preached, was 
chargeable with a participation in the guilt. Intolerance 
became, in their view, a paramount duty to God and to the 
heretic himself; and the greater their love of God and of 



* This is the ground on which Mr. Cotton himself justified the 
punishment of heretics. See the " Bloody Tenet." 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 77 

truth, the greater was their zeal to extirpate, with a strong 
hand, every noxious weed from the garden of the Lord.* 
It was not, therefore, a bigoted preference merely for their 
own views which made them persecute others, but a con- 
viction that they only embraced the truth, and that all op- 
posing doctrines were pernicious, and must not be allowed. 
It was not, in their judgment, inconsistent to act thus to- 
wards others, after having themselves endured persecution ; 
for they regarded themselves as having been sufferers for 
the truth, and they were urged, by these very sufferings, to 
be more faithful in upholding that truth, and suppressing what 
they deemed to be error. It is due to the Pilgrims to re- 
member, that they acted from principles, erroneous certainly, 
and deplorable in their effects, but sincerely adopted and 
cherished in hearts which, nevertheless, glowed with love to 
God, The grand doctrine of liberty of conscience was 
then a portentous novelty, and it was the glory of Roger 
Williams, that he, in such an age, proclaimed it, defended 
it, suffered for it, and triumphantly established it. 

The principles of Roger Williams stood in the atti- 

* " About the same time that Bossuet, the most illustrious champion 
of the Church of Rome, was engaged in maintaining, with all the 
force of his overwhelming eloquence, and inexhaustible ingenuity, 
that the sovereign was bound to use his authority in extirpating false 
religions from the state, the Scotch Commissioners in London were 
remonstrating, in the name of their national Church, against the intro- 
duction of a ' sinful and ungodly toleration in matters of religion ; ' 
whilst the whole body of the English Presbyterian Clergy, in their 
official papers, protested against the schemes of Cromwell's party, and 
solemnly declared, ' that they detested and abhorred toleration.' ' My 
judgment,' said Baxter, a man noted in his day for moderation, • I 
have always freely made known. I abhor unlimited liberty or toler- 
ation of all.' — ' Toleration,' said Edwards, another distinguished di- 
vine, ' will make the kingdom a chaos, a Babel, another Amsterdam, 
a Sodom, an Egypt, a Babylon. Toleration is the grand work of the 
Devil, his master-piece, and chief engine to uphold his tottering king- 
dom. It is the most compendious, ready, sure way to destroy all 
religion, lay all waste and bring in all evil. It is a most transcendent, 
catholic and fundamental evil. As original sin is the fundamental 
sin, having the seed and spawn of all sins in it, so toleration hath all 
errors in it, and all evils.' Verplank' s Discourses, pp. 23, 24. Simi- 
lar language was used in this country. The Rev. Mr. Ward, in his 
Simple Cobler of Agawam, written in 1C47, utters his detestation of 
toleration, and says : '• He that is willing to tolerate any religion, or 
decrepant way of religion, besides his own, unless it be in matters 
merely indifferent, either doubts of his own, or is not sincere in it." 



78 M E M O I R OF 

tude of irreconcilable opposition to the system vvhicii 
the Pilgrims had established in New-England. They could 
not blend with it. They came into collision with it, at 
every point. We have accordingly seen, that Mr. Williams 
was continually at variance with the government, because 
their measures were adjusted to their settled policy, but were 
repugnant to his great doctrine. There could be no peace 
between them, unless he yielded, or they abandoned their 
system. He was firm, and they were unconvinced. They 
possessed the power, and they banished him ; not so much 
to punish him, as to remove from the colony a man whose 
doctrines they believed to be wrong, whose influence they 
feared, and whom they could neither intimidate nor persuade 
to abandon his principles. 

It is intimated by Dr. Bentley,* that the rivalry of Salem 
and Boston had some effect to induce a rigorous treatment 
of Mr. Williams. He had great influence in Salem. He 
had drawn thither some pej*sons from Plymouth, and it was, 
perhaps, feared, that his popularity gave an importance to 
Salem, which might be prejudicial to the metropolis. 

It is due to the principal actors in these scenes, to record 
the fact, of which ample evidence exists, that personal 
animosity had little, if any, share in producing the sentence 
of banishment. Towards Mr. Williams, as a Christian 
and a minister, there was a general sentiment of respect. 
Governor Winthrop was a generous friend to him throughout 
his life; and it is asserted by Dr. Bentley, that "had 
Governor Winthrop been at liberty to concur with Endicott, 
and not have been deterred by the competition of Boston 
and Salem, Williams would have lived and died at Salem." 

Mr. Haynes was Governor at the time Mr. W^illiams was 
banished, and Mr. Winthrop lost for a while his salutary 
influence over the public councils.! He endeavored, at a 
subsequent period, to procure a repeal of the sentence of 

* 1 His. Col. vi. p. 248. 

t Mr. Haynes was preceded by Mr. Dudley, who was a stern man, 
and particularly opposed to toleration. He died soon after, with a 
copy of verses in his pocket, written with his own hand. The two 
following lines made a part of it : 

'• Let men of God in court and churches watch 
'' O'er such as do a toleration hatch." 
Mr. Haynes also accused Governor Winthrop as too mild. 
Winthrop, vol. i. p. 178. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 79 

banishment against Mr. Williams ; but a more rigid policy 
prevailed, and the founder of Rhode-Island continued till 
his death an outlaw from Massachusetts. 

Mr. Cotton was, at that time, the most powerful man in 
the commonwealth ; and well did his piety, learning and 
intrepid love of pure religion merit the respect and affections 
of the colonists. Whatever share he may have had in 
procuring the banishment of Mr. Williams,* it is certain, 
that there was no personal feud between them. They had 
been acquainted with each other in England, and had alike 
suffered from the intolerance of the Prelates. Mr. Cotton 
sincerely thought Mr. Williams' principles wrong, and 
dangerous to the church and the state. He felt it to be 
the duty of the government to protect the colony, by remov- 
ing from it this source of peril. In the controversy which 
subsequently arose between Mr. Cotton and Mr. Williams, 
the latter uniformly spoke of Mr. Cotton in the most 
respectful terms ;t a circumstance, which is the more 
remarkable, because at that day the style of polemic dis- 
cussion was less decorous than it is at the present time, and 
disputants lavished upon each other, with unsparing 
virulence, the bitterest epithets of obloquy. While we 
lament, therefore, that a man of so many admirable quali- 
ties as Mr. Cotton, was misled by wrong views of religious 
liberty, and thus betrayed into intolerance, we owe it to his 
honorable fame to remember ,that the best men are imperfect, 
and that no personal hostility inflamed his zeal. 

We may express the verdict, which, at this distant period, 
all calm and fair minds will, it is presumed, pronounce : 
that Mr. Williams was unnecessarily scrupulous about 
some minor points of conduct and of policy, though these 
scruples may be candidly traced to the agitated condition of 

* Mr. Cotton denied, in his Reply to the Bloody Tenet, that he 
had any agency in the banishment of Mr. Williams, but avowed 
that he approved of it. Mr. Williams asserts, '• Some gentlemen 
who consented to the sentence against me, solemnly testified with 
tears, that they did it by the advice and counsel of Mr. Cotton." 
These two assertions may be reconciled, perhaps, by the remark of 
Mr. Cotton, that " if he did counsel one or two, it would not argue 
the act of the government." " 

t In the Bloody Tenet such phrases as these are repeatedly applied 
to Mr. Cotton : " I speak with honorable respect for the answerer' — 
'• the worthy answerer" — " a man incomparably too worthy for such 
a service." 



80 MEMOIROF 

the public mind in England and America, and to his own 
delicacy of conscience , that he may have erred in main- 
taining his principles with too little of that meek patience 
which he who would effect a reform in the opinions of men 
must possess, though candor will admit, that the constant 
opposition which Mr. Williams encountered might have 
irritated a gentler spirit than his ; that his behavior to the 
civil rulers was not indecorous, unless a firm opposition to 
what he considered as wrong in their measures might be 
viewed as indecorum, for he yielded to their authority, in 
every point which his conscience would allow; that his 
private character was pure; and that the cause of his 
banishment may be found, in his distinguishing doctrine, 
that the civil power has no control over the religious opinions 
of men ; a doctrine which no man, in our country, would, at 
the present day, venture to deny. Mr. Williams was 
banished, therefore, because his spirit was too elevated and 
enlarged, for the community in which he lived. Like 
Aristides, the prominent excellence of his character was 
the cause of his banishment. 

But the same impartial verdict will do justice to the 
Pilgrims. They felt it to be not merely their right, but their 
duty, to protect their theocracy from persons, whose 
tDpinions or conduct, in their judgment, disturbed its peace 
or endangered its purity. They believed, that the sword 
of the magistrate was to be used for the defence of the 
church, as in the days of Moses and Aaron. To deny 
this principle, was to subvert the foundation of their civil 
and religious institutions ; and it became, in their opinion, 
a measure of self-preservation, and of paramount duty to 
God, to expel Mr. Williams from the colony. That the 
grounds of this measure were wrong, will not now be 
disputed ; but we ought to rejoice, that we can ascribe it 
to a sincere, though misdirected, desire to uphold the 
church, and to advance the honor of God. Were these 
excellent men now alive, they would be foremost in lamenting 
their own error, and in vindicating those principles of reli- 
gious liberty, for which Mr. Williams incurred their displea- 
sure. 

And we may on this occasion, as on many others, observe 
the wonderful wisdom of Divine Providence, which so 
controls the mistakes and sins of men, as to accomplish the 



R O G E R W I L L I A M S. 81 

most important results. The banishment of Mr. Williams 
contributed in the end to his own happiness and fame. 
Another colony was established, and thus civilization and 
religion were diffused. And we shall soon see how this 
event, though springing from wrong views, and producing 
much immediate suffering, was the means, a few years after, 
of that interposition of Mr. Williams between the colonists 
and the Indians, which apparently rescued the whites 
throughout New-England from total destruction. 



83 MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER VI. 



Numbers, condition, language, rights, &c. of the Indians in New- 
England. 

The history of Roger Williams becomes, from this point, 
so closely connected with that of the Indians, as to make 
it necessary to present a brief sketch of their situation and 
character. We must confine our view to those who in- 
habited New-England. Mr. Williams himself has furnished 
us with valuable aid in this review. His Key to the In- 
dian Languages, though its chief object was philology, pre- 
sents many interesting details respecting the habits and 
general character of the aborigines. 

The territory now comprehended within the limits of 
New-England was inhabited by various tribes, the principal 
of which were the following : 

1. The Pawtuckcts, whose territory extended from Sa- 
lem, (Mass.) to Portsmouth, (N. H.,) being bounded by 
the ocean on the east, and by the Nipmuck country on the 
west. 

2. The Massachusetts, who dwelt chiefly about the Bay, 
which bears their name. 

3. The Pokanokcts, who inhabited the territory of the 
old colony of Plymouth. This tribe included several sub- 
ordinate tribes, among whom were the Wampanoags, the 
particular tribe of Massassoit and Philip, 

4. The Narraganscts, who inhabited nearly all the ter- 
ritory which afterwards formed the colony of Rhode-Island, 
including the islands in the Bay, Block-Island, and a part 
of Long-Island. 

5. The Peqiiods, who inhabited the southern part of the 
present State of Connecticut. The Mohegans have been 
considered as a part of this tribe, inhabiting the western 
and northern parts of Connecticut. 

These principal nations included many subordinate and 
tributary tribes, among whom may be mentioned the Nip- 
mucks, who were scattered over the western parts of Mas- 
sachusetts. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 83 

At a period not long preceding the arrival of the 
English, a pestilence prevailed among the natives, to so 
frightful an extent, that some of the tribes became nearly 
extinct. The Pavi^tuckets, who could previously raise three 
thousand fighting men, were almost exterminated. The 
Massachusetts, who were equally numerous, were so re- 
duced, that they could not, probably, in 1630, have raised 
a hundred men. The Pokanokets were diminished to 
about five hundred warriors.* The Narragansets suffered 
little, and the Pequods were uninjured by the pestilence. 
Each of these tribes could raise four thousand fighting 
men.t The Pequods were the most fierce and warlike, and 
the Narragansets the most civilized, of the New-England 
savages. 

The Indians, when most numerous, could occupy but a 
small portion of the territory. They subsisted chiefly by 
hunting, a mode of life which is impracticable except where 
extensive tracts remain in the wildness of nature. Their 
dwellings were usually built in small villages, rudely con- 
structed of skins or bark, and easily removed, as their ca- 
price or necessities required. The lands claimed by each 
tribe were held in common. Each member roamed over it at 
his pleasure, and took the game wherever he could find it. 
Their agriculture was limited to the cultivation of Indian 
corn, tobacco, and a few esculent vegetables, such as beans 
and squashes. The agricultural labor was performed by 
the women, with little skill, and rude implements. The 
product must consequently have been small. Game was 
not always plentiful, or was consumed with the improvident 
voracity of savages. They did not understand the art of 
salting provisions for future use. They often suffered from 
hunger, especially during the winter. They knew little of 
the medical art, and their diseases, though few, were fatal. 
Their wars were frequent and sanguinary. Their mode of 
life was unfavorable to the rearing of children. For these 
and other reasons, the native tribes could never have been 
very numerous ; and if the Europeans had not landed here, 
the country over which our free and flourishing States have 
spread themselves would, it is probable, have been, at this 



* Baylies' History of Plymouth, vol. i. chap. 4. 
t 2 His. CoL vol. ix. pp. 235,236. 



84 M E M O I R O P 

hour, a wilderness, the hunting ground of tribes not less 
savage, and, perhaps, little more numerous, than those whom 
our fathers found here. 

The origin of the Indians is involved in impenetrable 
mystery. Their own traditions shed no light on the sub- 
ject, and nothing has been found, in their customs or lan- 
guages, which could lead to a satisfactory conclusion. 
Imagination has been active in tracing their connection 
with different nations. The favorite theory of many writers 
has been, that they are the descendants of the ten Jewish 
tribes ; but this opinion is founded on the slight ground of 
a few coincidences between the customs of the Jews and 
those of the Indians, and fancied resemblances in some of 
their words to terms in the Hebrew language. Roger Wil- 
liams wisely refrains from expressing any opinion on the 
subject, except by stating his confidence that the Indians 
have sprung from Adam and Noah. He mentions several 
Indian customs, which resemble Jewish rites, and says, 
''others (and myself) have conceived some of their words 
to hold affinity with the Hebrew." But he adds, " I have 
found a greater affinity of their language with the Greek 
tongue."* The natives themselves believed, that their 
great god Cautantowit made a man and woman of a stone, 
but disliking them, he broke them in pieces, and made 
another man and woman of a tree, from whom all mankind 
have descended.! The mounds and other monuments 
found in the western States, have been considered as evi- 
dences, that some people, superior to the Indians, once in- 
habited that part of the country. But who they were, and 
why they disappeared, we shall probably never know. The 
probability seems to be, that America was first inhabited 
by emigrants from Asia, who crossed from the one conti- 
nent to the other, at some point near the northwestern ex- 
tremity of America. But conjecture is useless. That the 
Indians have descended from Adam, no one who reverences 
the Bible will doubt. That they are of a kindred nature 
with other men is proved, both by their virtues and their 
vices. Their minds are acknowledged, by all who have 
known them well, to be fully equal in strength and acute- 
ness to those of civilized men. That they are capable of 

* Key, Introduction. t Key, ch. 21. 



k O G E R W I L L I A M S. 85 

becoming pious Christians, has happily been demonstrated 
by many cheering examples. 

Their government was very simple. A wild freedom 
prevailed among them, and their roving habits did not per- 
mit much control. They needed, however, some rulers in 
peace, and leaders in war. Each tribe had one or more 
chiefs, called sachems, who were, at first, chosen by the 
tribe, or who gained the ascendency, by superior wisdom 
or courage. Some of these sachems inherited and trans- 
mitted their power, by hereditary right ; but it is probable, 
that the incumbent owed his authority more to his personal 
qualities than to his birth.* The sachems held nominally 
the supreme power, and received tribute, but they were 
controlled by the wisdom of the aged men, and by the fierce 
energy of the young warriors. " The sachems," says 
Roger Williams, t " although they have an absolute mon- 
archy over the people, yet they will not conclude of aught 
that concerns all, either laws, or subsidies, or wars, unto 
which the people are averse, and by gentle persuasion can- 
not be brought." There were subordinate chiefs, some- 
times called sagamores, who held a limited authority over 
portions of the tribes. All important questions were dis- 
cussed in councils, where eloquence was as fervid and 
efficacious, probably, as in the more polished assemblies of 
Greece. 

The physical characteristics of the Indians were common 
to all the tribes, — a bronze or copper color ; straight, coarse, 
black hair, hazel eyes, high cheek bones, and an erect form, j 
They possessed firm, well compacted bodies, capable of 
enduring the greatest hardships and fatigues, and regardless 
of cold, while travelling in the severity of winter. § They 
were very active, and could run vast distances with aston- 
ishing speed and endurance. || They could subsist for 

* The remark of Tacitus, respecting the German tribes, is true of 
the Indians : " Reges ex nobilitate, Duces ex virtute sumunt. Nee 
Regibus infinita aut libera potestas, et Duces exemplo potius quam 
imperio; si prompti, si conspicui, si ante aciem agant, admiratione 
praesunt." De Mor. Ger. c. vii. 

t Key, ch. 22. t Encyclopaedia Americana, art. Indians. 

§ Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 411. 

II Roger Williams says, '' I have known many cf them run be- 
tween fourscore or an hundred miles in a summer's day, and back 
in two days." Key, ch. 11 
8* 



86 M E M O I R O F 

many days on a little parched corn, pounded into meal. 
" This," says Roger Williams, " is a very wholesome food, 
which they eat with a little water, hot or cold. I have trav- 
elled with near two hundred of them at once, near one hun- 
dred miles through the woods, each man carrying a little 
basket of this at his back, and sometimes in a hollow leather 
girdle about his middle, sufficient for a man for three or four 
days. With this ready provision, and their bow and arrow, 
are they ready for war and travel at a moment's warning. 
With a spoonful of this meal and a spoonful of water from 
the brook, have I made many a good dinner and supper."* 
When they had leisure, however, and a plentiful supply of 
food, they would compensate themselves for their absti- 
nence, by eating enormous quantities. Their cookery was 
simple, their meat or fish being boiled or roasted, and eaten 
without salt or bread. Indian corn, boiled, either whole or 
when ground, was a common dish.f Their only drink was 
water, until Europeans introduced among them the devour- 
ing curse of spirituous liquors. Tobacco was in general 
use, as a remedy for the toothache, and as a stimulant, of 
which they were as fond as their civilized successors. 

Their diseases were few, but neglect or injudicious treat- 
ment made them very destructive. The chief remedy was 
sweating, in a cave or cell, made hot with heated stones. 
In this cell the patient remained an hour or more, and then 
plunged into a river. Roger Williams expended much 
time and money in administering to the sick among the 
Indians, and he expressed his confidence, that millions of 
the natives had perished for want of suitable aid. Infec- 
tious diseases sometimes seized them, and made terrific 
ravages. The living fled, and whole towns were deserted. 
The powaws, or priests, pretended to much skill in curing 
diseases ; but their medical practice consisted mainly of 
hideous bellowings, incantations, and other fantastic cere- 
monies. 

* Key, ch. 2. 

t When boiled whole it was called msickquatash, and it is still 
eaten in New-England, under the name of suckatash. The ground 
corn, when boiled, was called Nasaump. "From this," sajs Roger 
Williams, " the English call their samp, which is the Indian corn, 
beaten and boiled, and eaten hot or cold with milk or butter, which 
are mercies beyond the natives' plain water, and which is a dish ex- 
ceeding wholesome for the English bodies." Key, ch. 2. 



R O G E R W I L L 1 A M S. 87 

Their domestic habits were not favorable to happiness or 
virtue. The marriage relation was formed with little care, 
and was dissolved at the pleasure of the husband. A man 
might have as many wives as he chose, and was able to pur- 
chase from their parents. The women were treated with 
rigor. They were forced to perform the labors of agricul- 
ture, and to carry the provisions and packs of every kind, 
in their huntings and marches. The parents permitted 
their children to grow up without restraint, and the chil- 
dren were undutiful, and often cruel to their parents. 

The Indians w^ere hospitable to strangers. They were 
grateful for benefits, and were firm friends; but their re- 
sentment of injuries was fierce and implacable. They 
pursued an enemy with the malignity of fiends, and they 
usually murdered their captives, with prolonged and shock- 
ing tortures. They met death, even when thus inflicted, 
with the utmost composure, disdaining to exhibit any 
symptoms of fear or pain, and often provoking their tor- 
mentors by scornful taunts. They were treacherous, prone 
to lying, and indolent, except when war or hunting roused 
them to action. They were fond of sports, and like the 
Germans, as described by Tacitus, they were addicted to 
gaming. 

They had no commerce, except the sale of corn, skins, 
and some other articles, to the Europeans. Their only 
money consisted of shells, sewed together on strips of cJoth, 
and thus forming belts of various lengths, and different de- 
grees of beauty, according to the taste of the maker. This 
money, as described by Roger Williams, " was of two sorts : 
one white, which they make of the stem or stock of the 
psriwincle, which they call meteauhock, when all the shell 
is broken off; and of this sort, six of their small beads 
(which they make with holes to string the bracelets) are 
current with the English for a penny. The second is 
black, inclining to blue, which is made of the shell of a fish 
which the English call hens, poquauhock,* and of this sort 
three make an English penny." The white money was 

* This shell fish is now called quahawg. The blue part of the 
shell seems to have been broken off, drilled, ground to a round, 
smooth surface, and polished. It appears that the white parts of the 
quahawg shell were in like manner made into wampum. Morton's 
Memorial, Appendix, p. 388. 



83 ivi E M o 1 ii o t- 

called wampum, which signified white. The other was 
called suckauhock, a word signifying black. Both kinds 
seem to have been called M'ampum, or wampumpeag. The 
Narraganset Indians were reputed the most skilful coiners 
of wampum, and the most ingenious manufacturers of pen- 
dants, bracelets, stone tobacco pipes, and earthen vessels 
for cooking and other domestic uses.* They were, as a 
cause, or perhaps as a consequence, more civilized and less 
warlike than their neighbors.! The Pequods insulted them, 
with the contemptuous title of a nation of women. It is a 
coincidence worthy of remark, that Rhode-Island ^ where 
this primitive nation of manufacturers resided, is distin- 
guished as the place where the manufacture of cotton was 
commenced in this country, and where this, and its kin- 
dred arts, have been cultivated with great success. The 
history of Rhode-Island, however, shows that her sons have 
not been deficient in martial qualities. If the sarcasm of 
the Pequods was deserved by the Narragansets, it has no 
application to those who now occupy the beautiful islands, 
the streams, the hills and the plains, from which this hap- 
less tribe have disappeared forever. 

The wars of the Indians were frequent. They were 
conducted in a desultory manner, with all the arts of savage 
cunning. Their weapons were bows and arrows, clubs, 
and rude spears. Their arrows were headed with sharp, 
triangular pieces of stone, many of which are found at the 
present day. After the arrival of the English, the arrow 
heads were made of brass, and an iron hatchet being added 
to the club, formed the dreaded tomahawk. The Indians 
soon learned the value of fire arms. Though the sale of 
muskets and of powder to the Indians was forbidden by the 
colonists, yet the natives, obtaining a supply from the Dutch, 
and from unprincipled traders, speedily rivalled the Euro- 
peans in the skilful use of these instruments of death. 

The religion of the Indians was vague and shadowy. 

* Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 406. 

t The remark of Lord Bacon is applicable to the native tribes of 
our land. "It is certain, that sedentary and within door arts, and 
delicate manufactures (that require rather the finger than the arm) 
have in their nature a contrariety to a warlike disposition ; and gen- 
erally all warlike people are a little idle, and love danger better than 
travail." Essay 29. 



ROGERWILLIAMS. 89 

They had no images, but they worshipped a number of 
deities. Roger Williams said, that he had heard the names 
of thirty-seven gods, to whom they rendered some religious 
homage. They acknowledged, however, one superior be- 
ing, named Cautantowit, as the creator of men, and the 
giver of their corn and other temporal benefits. They be- 
lieved that Cautantowit resided in the southwest,* in a de- 
lightful region, to which the souls of good men went after 
death, and enjoyed fruitful fields, placid streams, abundant 
game, and every thing else which an Indian's imagination 
could conceive as necessary to happiness. The souls of 
wicked men, as they believed, would wander, without rest.t 
The separate existence and immortality of the soul, and an 
endless state of retribution, according to the deeds done in 
the body, were prominent doctrines in the narrow creed of 
these rude savages. These doctrines are found among 
almost all nations ; and their prevalence can be satisfacto- 
rily explained only by supposing that they are derived from 
the original revelation, and preserved, by tradition, as well as 
by their accordance with the reason and instincts of man- 
kind. 

The Indians had priests, who directed th^ir worship. 
This consisted in little more than occasional prayers, dances 
and feasts. Their religion had little influence over their 
minds, as an incentive to virtue, or as a source of consola- 
tion. They lived in gross darkness, and died without hope. 
Though Eliot, Roger Williams, and others, labored for 
their spiritual welfare, with some success, | yet the great 

* They supposed that their elysium was situated in the southwest, 
because the wind from that quarter is always the attendant or pre- 
cursor of fine weather. It was not unnatural for an ignorant savage 
to imagine, that the balmy and delightful breezes from the south- 
west were ^- airs from heaven." 

t Key, ch. 21. 

t The Rev. John Eliot, called the Indian apostle, was settled as 
the teacher of the church in Roxbury, in 1632. He learned the In- 
dian language, and commenced preaching to the natives. In 1651, 
an Indian town was built, on a pleasant spot on Charles river, about 
16 miles from Boston, and called Natick. A house of worship was 
erected, and a church of converted Indians was formed, in 1660. In 
1661, he published the New Testament, in the Indian language, and 
in a few years after, the whole Bible, and several other books. His 
labors for the welfare of the natives were very great, and his suc- 
cess was gratifying. In 1670; there were between 60 and 70 praying 



90 M E M I R O P 

mass of the tribes went into eternity without a knowledge 
of the Saviour. It is melancholy to reflect, that multitudes 
of these immortal beings died, in all their darkness, after 
the glorious Gospel had begun to shed its radiance over 
these hills and vallies. Our fathers desired and attempted 
their conversion, but their efforts were baffled, by many ad- 
verse causes. Let us, at this late day, endeavor to lead 
the feeble remnants of these departed nations to the great 
Bishop of souls. 

The languages of the Indians are among the wonders of 
philology. They have been studied, with ardor and suc- 
cess, by many scholars in our own country, and by a few 
scientific men abroad.* These languages, instead of being 
rude and scanty, as might be inferred from the character of 
the Indians, are found to be astonishingly regular and co- 
pious, rich in forms, and possessing a facility of combina- 
tion, and a nice discrimination in their inflections, which 
are scarcely surpassed even by the ancient Greek. t Mr. 



communicants. The example of Eliot was followed by others, es- 
pecially by the Mayhews, who labored among the Indians on Nan- 
tucket and Martha's Vineyard. Many churches were formed in 
various places besides Natick, schools established, books printed, and 
other efforts made for the welfare of the natives. The aggregate 
number of praying Indians, in J 674, has been estimated as follows : 
In Massachusetts, principally under Mr. Eliot's care, 1100 
In Plymouth, under Mr. Bourne, - - - 530 

In Plymouth, under Mr. Cotton, - - - 170 

On the island of Nantucket, - - - - 300 

On Martha's Vineyard and Chappequiddick, under the ) it-nn 
Mayhews, 5 ^^^^ 

3600 
See Morton's Memorial, note U, p. 407, and Qu. Register of the 
Am. Ed. Soc. for Feb. 1832. Adams' Bio. Die. art. Eliot and 
Mayhew. 

* The illustrious Professors Adelung and Vater, and Baron Hum- 
boldt, deserve a special mention. They are the authors of that as- 
tonishing work, the Mithridates. 

t The Cherokee language exceeds even the Greek in its power to 
express, by the inflection of a single word, delicate modifications of 
thought. An example is given in the Appendix to the 6th volume 
of the Encyclopaedia Americana. It is also a specimen of the length 
to which the words in the Indian languages are often extended. 
The word is, Winitaw'tigeginaliskawlungtanawneli'tisesti, which 
may be rendered, "They will by that time have nearly done grant- 
ing [favors] from a distance to thee and to me." This word is un- 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 91 

Du Ponceau, of Philadelphia, who has studied the native 
dialects with great diligence and with philosophical acumen, 
says, '' I confess that I am lost in astonishment at the co- 
piousness and admirable structure of their languages ; for 
which I can only account by looking up to the Great First 
Cause."* He says, of the Delaware language, " it would 
rather appear to have been formed by philosophers in their 
closets, than by savages in the wilderness." 

The languages and dialects spoken on the continent of 
America, have been estimated by the authors of the Mith- 
ridates, at the astonishing number of tivelve hundred and 
fourteen.^ A large proportion of these, however, are only 
variations of a few parent languages, just as the English 
language is varied in different counties in England by pecu- 
liarities, which are scarcely intelligible in other parts of the 
island. The French language is, in the same way, cor- 
rupted by the patois of different sections of the country. 
Unwritten languages are, of course, still more liable to vari- 
ations, which, in time, would make a distinct dialect. 

All the native languages of North America have been 
reduced to four classes: 1. The Karalit, or language of 
Greenland, and the Esquimaux. 2. The Delaware. 3. 
The Iroquois. 4. The Floridian, comprehending the body 
of languages spoken on the whole southern frontier of the 
United States.J 

The dialects spoken in New-England are believed to have 
been varieties of the Delaware language. <§. Roger Williams 
affirms of the Narraganset tongue, that " with this I have 
entered into the secrets of those countries wherever Eng- 
lish dwell, about two hundred miles, between the French 
and Dutch plantations. There is a mixture of this lan- 
guage north and south from the place of my abode about six 
hundred miles ; yet, within the two hundred miles aforesaid, 
their dialects do exceedingly differ, yet not so but (within 

derstood to be regularly inflected, according to fixed rules. If so, 
the Cherokee language must have an arrangement of modes, tenses 
and numbers, which few if any other languages on earth can equal. 

* 2 His. Col. ix. 227. 

t The number assigned, in the same work, to Europe, is 587; to 
Africa, 276; to Asia, 987.' Total, in the world, 3064. 

X 2 His. Col. ix. 233, 234. 

§Hecke welder and Edwards assert this fact. 



92 M E M O I R O F 

that compass) a man may by this help converse with thou- 
sands of natives all over the country."* The Massachusetts 
language, into which Eliot translated the Bible, was radi- 
cally the same tongue as the Narraganset. 

Roger Williams published the first vocabulary of an In- 
dian language. His book attracted attention, when first 
published, in 1643, and it is still much valued. We shall have 
occasion to recur to it. Eliot wrote a Grammar of the Mas- 
sachusetts language. The son of President Edwards wrote 
a brief account of the Mohegan language. The Hon. Josiah 
Cotton, a descendant of the great John Cotton, compiled a 
vocabulary of the Massachusetts dialect. These and other 
valuable papers on the native languages, have been pub- 
lished in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society. They are worthy of the attention of every man 
who loves to study the human mind, and who feels an 
interest in the character of the Indians. 

We will now offer a few remarks on a subject which has' 
already been touched, the rights of the Indians, and the 
treatment which they received from the colonists. It is a 
topic of deep interest, which aflects the character of our 
fathers, and to which recent events and the present condi- 
tion of the surviving Indians have attracted earnest atten- 
tion. 

The right of the natives to hold the possession and control 
of all the territory on this continent has been a subject of 
dispute. The general principles applicable to this case, as 
expounded by Vattel, are these :t God has given the earth 
to the human race, and every man is entitled to a portion 
of its surface, sufficient for the comfortable support of him- 
self and family. The actual occupancy of such a portion 
gives to the occupant a title which no man can rightfully 
disturb. But no one has an original right to appropriate 
to himself more than he needs, because he may thus de- 
prive others, who possess equal rights with himself, of their 
appropriate share. Nor can he justly adopt a mode of 
subsistence, which will necessarily require so large an ex- 
tent of territory, as to deprive his fellow men of their pro- 
portion, and either prevent the increase of the human race, 

*Key, introduction.' 

t Vattel's Law of Nations, book i. sections 81 and 209. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 93 

or produce in other places an accumulation of masses of 
men, too great to be comfortably sustained. That the 
cultivation of the earth was designed by the Creator to be 
the chief means of subsistence to the human family, can- 
not be doubted ; because the increase of the race was cer- 
tainly his purpose,* and agriculture is the only mode by 
which a dense population could every where be supported. 
It follows, that a man has no right to claim for himself a 
vast tract of forest, because he chooses to subsist by hunt- 
ing. If all other men cannot have a similar tract, he must, 
himself, become a cultivator, and thus subsist on a small 
portion of land. If a man had appropriated to himself a 
large territory, which, by proper cultivation, would furnish 
subsistence for many others, those others, if their necessi- 
ties required, would have a right to claim their share, and 
to enforce their claim. 

These principles, in their application to a primitive so- 
ciety, just taking possession of a new territory, seem to be 
indisputable. They are the principles on which the land 
of Canaan was divided among the Jews, by the authority 
of God himself, and on which the colonists in this country 
generally proceeded, in dividing the territory which they 
acquired from the Indians. 

In the progress of society, however, the balance soon 
becomes disturbed. Other modes of subsistence than agri- 
culture are adopted, and various causes produce an accu- 
mulation of wealth in the hands of some men, while others 
are reduced to indigence. The peace of society requires, 
that the rich should be protected in their lawful posses- 
sions ; though every civilized nation still acts on the prin- 
ciple, that every member of the community is entitled to 
a subsistence. He ought to earn it by his labor, but if 
sickness, or want of employment, or other reasonable 
causes, prevent, he is entitled to assistance from the com- 
munity, and the rich are taxed for his support. The most 
strenuous opposer of poor laws will not deny, that a man, 
who cannot maintain himself, has a right to aid from his 
fellow citizens. Thus the original law of nature comes 
into operation, and the inequalities which arise are, in 

*'' And God blessed them, and God said unto them. Be fruitful 
and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it." Genesis, i. 28. 
9 



94 M E M O I R O F 

some measure, comtpensated. But a fundamental princi- 
ple of civilized society is, that every man is to be protected 
in the enjoyment of the property which he lawfully ac- 
quires. He may use it as he pleases, if he does not injure 
others ; and he cannot be deprived of it, or of any part of 
it, without his own consent. 

It is not easy to see, why the same principle should not 
be applied to the Indians. They had regular, though sim- 
ple, governments, and the territories of each tribe were 
defined by boundaries sufficiently precise for their pur- 
poses. They had the best of all titles to their lands, actual 
possession. Why, then, might not the Indian claim to be 
protected in the enjoyment of his property 1 Why might he 
not make use of that property as he pleased, while he did 
not trespass on the rights of others? If the law of nations 
did not reach him, was he out of the pale of the great law 
of justice and reason ? If it were said, that he had no 
right to appropriate to himself miles of forest, for a hunting 
ground, he might reply, that he had as good a right as an 
English nobleman has to appropriate to himself a vast 
space, for parks and fish ponds; and, indeed, a better 
right, by the law of nature, for every other Indian could 
enjoy as much land as himself, while the nobleman must 
see hundreds around him in abject poverty. 

But it has been said, that the Creator could not have 
designed this vast and beautiful region to be exclusively 
inhabited by a few thousands of savage hunters ; and, there- 
fore, if the old world should become crowded with inhab- 
itants, a portion of them would have a right to remove to 
America, and occupy a portion of it, as a part of the great 
inheritance of the human race. The Indians would con- 
sequently be bound to allow them a sufficient space ; and 
if the numbers of both parties should so increase as to 
make hunting impracticable, the Indians ought to become 
cultivators. 

If this theory were admitted as sound, the practical ap- 
plication of it would not be easy. The absolute necessity 
of emigration from the old world has not, perhaps, occurred, 
and yet this case must be made out, to justify an occupancy 
of a part of the Indian territory, without the consent of the 
natives. Immense tracts of uncultivated land exist in 
Europe, and even in England. Why would it not be as 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 95 

just for a company of settlers to fix their dwellings in a no- 
bleman's park, cut down his trees, and pirint their corn, as 
to do the same on the lands of an Indian ? If it were al- 
leged, that the Indian had more land than he needed, the 
same might be said, perhaps, of the nobleman. At any 
rate, it might be asked, who was the proper judge, how 
much land an Indian needed ? 

But, looking at the actual state of things, at the settle- 
ment of this country, the necessities of the Pilgrims were 
sufficiently great, to make it the duty of the Indians to re- 
ceive them hospitably, and allow them a portion of their 
lands. Where th« country was deserted by the natives, the 
colonists might, undoubtedly, take possession. But wherever 
the Indians actually occupied the territory, even for the 
purposes of hunting, they were, clearly, the proprietors ; 
and though it was doubtless their duty to cede to the Eu- 
ropeans a sufficient portion for their maintenance, yet they 
could not justly be forced to perform this duty. The settlers 
were bound to be satisfied with a sufficient amount of land 
for their comfortable support by agriculture and by the 
arts of civilized life. But the Indians retained an inviola- 
ble right to so much territory as they deemed necessary for 
their own use. Their title was beyond dispute. No power 
on earth could lawfully dispossess them. 

We may conclude, then, that the Indians were the law- 
ful proprietors of all the lands which they occupied. They 
were independent nations, and had a right to regulate 
their governments, and use their territory, as they pleased, 
while they respected the rights of others. They conse- 
quently could not be lawfully subjected to the sway of 
any other nation, without their own consent. No charters 
from popes or kings could give a right to take possession 
of the Indian territory. The Indians were nevertheless 
under an obligation to receive distressed Europeans, who 
sought their coasts, and to sell them land. They were, 
too, bound by the great law of God, which requires men to 
aspire after moral and physical perfection. This law 
obliged them to become civilized, and to adopt those modes 
of life which would enable their territory to support the 
greatest possible number of inhabitants. Hence arose 
another obligation to admit Europeans among them, who 
were capable of instructing and elevating them to the rank 



96 MEMOIROF 

of civilized, educated, Christian nations. The duties of 
the settlers were, to make a reasonable compensation for 
the land ceded ; to respect the rights of the natives ; to 
treat them with uniform kindness ; to teach them the arts 
of civilization ; and, above all, to inculcate the principles 
and the practice of the Christian religion. 

It is pleasing to observe, in the history of the New- 
England colonists, that the duties of both parties were, to 
so great an extent, fulfilled. The Indians, in most cases, 
received the white men with generous hospitality ; they 
sold them land, on easy terms ; many tribes remained their 
firm friends ; and some of the natives became converts to 
the Christian faith. The colonists, on the other hand, 
purchased their lands from the Indians, for such a com- 
pensation as satisfied the natives, and was a fair equivalent 
at that time.* They treated the Indians, generally, with 



*The patents which they brought with them were, in theory, 
unjust ; for they imphed, in terms, the absolute control of the Eng- 
lish monarch over the ceded territory, and contained no recognition 
of the rights of the natives. But the Christian integrity of the Pil- 
grims corrected, in practice, the erroi or defect of the patents. An 
able writer says : '• It is beyond all question, that the early settlers 
at Plymouth, at Saybrook, and, as a general rule, all along the At- 
lantic coast, purchased the lands upon which they settled, and pro- 
ceeded in their settlements with the consent of the natives. Nine- 
teen twentieths of the land in the Atlantic States, and nearly all the 
land settled by the whites in the western States, came into our pos- 
session as the result of amicable treaties." '-'The settlers usually 
gave as much for land as it was then worth, according to any fair 
and judicious estimate. An Indian would sell a square mile of land 
for a blanket and a jack-knife ; and this would appear to many to be 
a fraudulent bargain. It would, however, by no means deserve 
such an appellation. The knife alone would add more to the com- 
fort of an Indian, and more to his wealth, than forty square miles of 
land, in the actual circumstances of the case." See a very judicious 
article in the North American Review, for October, 1830. We may 
add, that, at this day, a square mile of land might be bought in some 
parts of the United States, for less than the first settlers paid the 
Indians for their lands. Indeed, as the writer just quoted says, 
" There are millions of acres of land in the Carolinas, which would 
not, at this moment, be accepted as a gift, and yet much of this land 
will produce, with very little labor, one hundred and fifty bushels of 
sweet potatoes to the acre." Vattel says, (book i. § 209) '• We can- 
not help praising the moderation of the English puritans, who first 
settled in New-England, who, notwithstanding their being furnished 
with a charter from their sovereign, purchased of the Indians the 



ROGEHWILLIAMS. 97 

justice, and they made many zealous efforts for their con- 
x^ersion. That some of the proceedings of the colonists 
towards the Indians were not strictly equitable nor kind, 
must be admitted. Our fathers were too prone to view 
them rather as heathens than as men. They recurred too 
often to the Jewish history, for imaginary analogies ; and 
drew unauthorized inferences from the conduct of the 
Jews towards idolatrous nations, whom God, the sovereign 
ruler, commanded them to destroy. In their wars with 
the natives, the colonists were sometimes unjustifiably 
severe ; but it is due to their memory to say, that those 
wars were commenced by the savages themselves, from 
jealousy of the advancing power of the whites, rather than 
from the experience of actual injury. We must consider, 
too, that when the struggle came, it was, on the part of 
the whites, a contest for life and death, with an enemy 
vastly more numerous, and whose modes of warfare were 
treacherous, cruel, and terrific in the highest degree to the 
scattered and feeble settlements.* 

A candid reader of our early colonial history, while he 
observes many things which he deeply regrets and con- 
demns, must nevertheless admit, that the conduct of our 
fathers towards the Indians was, in general, worthy of 
their high character, as wise and pious, yet imperfect men, 
who were placed in circumstances which severely tried 
their principles, and amid difficulties, which required the 
utmost wisdom and courage. When we consider the dia- 
bolical cruelty with which the Spaniards treated the un- 
happy natives of South America, we must turn, with emo- 
tions of grateful pleasure, to the history of our own land^ 
and rejoice, that our fathers were men, for whom their de- 
scendants have little occasion to blush, or to apologize. 

The kings of England, whatever language they em- 
ployed in their patents and charters, treated the Indians, 
in practice, as separate nations, and entered into treaties 
with different tribes. The government of the United 



land they resolved to cultivate. This laudable example was follow- 
ed by Mr. William Penn, who planted the colony of Quakers in 
Pennsylvania." 

* The consternation which the war with Black Hawk spread over 
the western country the last year, may give some famt idea ot the 
horrors of an Indian warfare in the early days of the colonies. 
9* 



98 



MEMOIR OF 



States have done the same, and, except in one humiliating 
instance, have pursued towards the natives a just and 
humane policy. The treaties so formed have been pro- 
nounced, by the highest legal authority in this country, 
to be binding on our government, and the rights of the 
Indians, as distinct nations, though under the protection of 
the United States^ have thus been judicially recognised.* 

That the Indian tribes in New-England melted away, 
must awaken melancholy feelings. But it cannot be main- 
tained, that their disappearance was occasioned mainly by 
the treatment or the neglect which they experienced from 
the colonial governments. These governments could not 
wholly prevent unprincipled individuals from inflicting 
wrongs on the natives, which tended to exasperate them. 
They could not entirely exclude the introduction of ardent 
spirits, the most deadly and active agent in the destruction 
of the aborigines. Though they sent missionaries, and 
printed Bibles, and erected schools, for the religious and 
literary instruction of the natives, they could not reclaim 
any considerable proportion of them from their savage 
habits. As the whites increased, the game disappeared, 
and as the Indians did not alter their habits, they became 
destitute, and their numbers diminished. They saw, at 
length, the alternative, of utter ruin or the expulsion of the 
English, and they determined to attempt the latter. But 
it was too late. They fought, with desperation, and filled 
the land with frightful distress and bloodshed. But the 
superior skill of the whites prevailed, and the death of the 
formidable Philip terminated forever the power of the In- 
dians in New-England. We may admit, that the savages 
were impelled by some motives of patriotism and love of 
liberty. We may respect and pity them. But surely we 
cannot lament that they failed ; that their exterminating 
warfare did not accomplish its purpose ; that the tomahawk 
did not, after butchering the last father in the field, smite 
the last infant in the cradle ; that the flames did not lay in 
ashes every dwelling of civilized man and every temple of 
God ; and that barbarism did not resume its dominion over 
the hills and vallies of New-England. No man, if he could 



n^lfZ^^'^^S °*"lt^ Supreme Court of the United States, at Jan- 
wary term, 1832, in the Cherokee case. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 99 

do it. by waving some potent wand, would bid all this 
teeming population, this wide spread happiness, this won- 
derful triumph of civilization, freedom and religion, disap- 
pear, like a gorgeous vision, and restore this whole land to 
the condition in which the Pilgrims found it, or even place 
it in the situation in which it would have been, at this mo- 
ment, if no civilized man had landed on these shores. 
Human happiness has been immeasurably increased by the 
settlement of this continent. Christianity has extended 
her conquests ; and no thoughtful man can doubt, that the 
landing of the Pilgrims, and the subsequent history of this 
country, have been controlled by Him, who accomplishes 
his great designs of mercy to the universe, by means which 
often involve individual suffering, and sometimes produce 
national ruin. 

Let us feel our obligation to treat the feeble remnants of 
the tribes who yet remain with generous kindness. Let us 
recompense them for whatever wrongs their fnthers may 
have received. Let us, now that they are weak, and we 
are strong, be scrupulously attentive to their rights, and 
seek to promote their highest temporal and eternal welfare. 
Without the friendship of their fathers, at the beginning, 
ours must have perished. Let the children of the white 
man prove their gratitude, by saving from ruin the helpless 
descendants of the savage. 



100 MEMOIR Ot' 



CHAPTER VII. 



Mr. Williams proceeds to Seekonk — crosses the river and founds the 
town of Providence. 

About the middle of January, 1635-6,* Mr. Williams 
left Salem, in secrecy and haste. It is not certain, that 
any one accompanied him, though a number of persons 
were with him a short time afterwards. He proceeded to 
the south, towards the Narraganset Bay. The weather 
was very severe, and his sufferings were great. In a letter 
written thirty-five years afterwards, he said : " I was sorely 
tossed for one fourteen weeks, in a bitter winter season, not 
knowing what bread or bed did mean ;" and he added, that 
he still felt the effects of his exposure to the severity of the 
weather. f 

He appears to have visited Ousamequin, the sachem of 
Pokanoket, who resided at Mount Hope, near the present 
town of Bristol (R. I.) From him he obtained a grant of 
land now included in the town of Seekonk, in Massachu- 
setts, on the east bank of Pawtucket (now Seekonk) river. | 
This territory was within the limits of the Plymouth colony, 
but Mr. Williams recognised the Indians only as the pro- 
prietors, and bought a title from the sachem. Ousamequin 
doubtless granted his request with pleasure, as a return for 
the services and presents which he had formerly received 
from Mr. Williams. If, as we have supposed, the exile 
was obliged to visit the sachem, and make these arrange- 
ments, the journey, on foot, increased that exposure to the 
severity of the elements, of which he complains. 

He was, moreover, unprovided with a dwelling. Mr. 
Cotton (in his Bloody Tenet washed, p. 8.) says, " that 
some of his friends went to the place appointed by himself 
beforehand, to make provision of housing, and other neces- 

* There is a strange confusion in the statements of different authors 
respecting the time of Mr. Williams' banishment, and of the settle- 
ment of Providence. The above date is unquestionably correct, 
for reasons which will hereafter be presented. 

t Letter to Major Mason. | Letter of Roger Williams. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 101 

saries for him against his coming." This statemen t 
however, must be incorrect. Mr. Williams' departure from 
Salem was sudden and unexpected ; and his assertion, 
just quoted, that he did not know "what bread or bed 
did mean," for fourteen weeks, must be understood as 
excluding the idea of such a preparation as Mr. Cotton 
mentions. Mr. Williams, too, says, " I first pitched, and 
began to build and plant at Seekonk."* He had no house, 
it would seem, till he built one. 

For the means of subsistence, he must have been depen- 
dent on the Indians. At that season, hunting and fishing 
were impracticable, if he had possessed the proper instru- 
ments. The earth was covered with snow, and he had not 
even the poor resource of roots. He may refer to his 
situation at this time, in the following lines, alluding to the 
Indians : 

'^ God"s Providence is rich to his. 
Let none distrustful be ; 

In wilderness, in great distress. 

* These ravens have fed me."t 

The spot, in Seekonk, where he reared his habitation, 
is believed, on good authority, to have been at Manton's 
Neck, near the cove, a short distance above the Central 
Bridge. J 

Here he probably hoped, that he might live in peace. 
He was soon joined by several friends, if they did not at 
first accompany him. His wife and children were still at 
Salem. 

But Seekonk was not to be his home. In a short time, 
to use his own language, " I received a letter from my 
ancient friend, Mr. Winslow, the Governor of Plymouth, 
professing his own and others' love and respect to me, yet 
lovingly advising me, since I was fallen into the edge of 
their bounds, and they were loath to displease the Bay, to 
remove to the other side of the water, and there, he said, I 
had the country free before me, and might be as free as 
themselves, and we should be loving neighbors together." 

This advice was apparently prudent and friendly, prompted 
by a desire of peace, and by a kind regard to Mr. Williams. 
It does not seem to deserve the harsh comments which 

* Letter to Major Mason. t Key, chap. ii. 

t The venerable Moses Brown assures me, that he has ascertained 
this fact, to his own satisfaction. 



102 MEMOIR OP 

have sometimes been made on it. Mr. Williams himself 
does not speak of it in a tone of reproach. He immedi- 
ately resolved to comply with the advice. He accordingly 
embarked in a canoe, with five others,* and proceeded 
down the stream. As they approached the little cove, near 
Tockwotten, now India Point, they were saluted, by a 
company of Indians, with the friendly interrogation, " What 
cheer V a common English phrase, which they had learned 
from the colonists.! At this spot, they probably went on 
shore, but they did not long remain there. | They passed 
round India Point and Fox Point, and proceeded up the 
river on the west side of the peninsula, to a spot near the 
mouth of the Moshassuck river. Tradition reports, that 
Mr. Williams landed near a spring, which remains till this 
day.§ At this spot, the settlement of Rhode-Island com- 
menced : 

'■' O call it holy ground, 

The soil where first they trod, 

They Imve left unstained, what there they found, 
Freedom to worship God."|| * 

To the town here founded, Mr. Williams, with his habit- 
ual piety, and in grateful remembrance of " God's merciful 
Providence to him in his distress," gave the name of 
Providence. 

There has been much discussion respecting the precise 
period at which this memorable event occurred. There is 
a perplexing confusion in the statements of different writers. 
We shall be excused, if we examine the subject with some 
minuteness. Callender, in his Century Sermon, (p. 18) 
says, that it was " in the spring of the year 1634-5." 
Governor Hopkins, in his History of Providence,^] places it 

* William Harris, John Smith, (miller,) Joshua Verin, Thomas 
Angell and Francis Wickes. R. I. Register, 1828, article written bj 
Moses Brown. 

t Equivalent to the modern How do you do ? 

X The lands adjacent to this spot were called Whatchecr. in mem- 
ory of the occurrence. 

§ '' Tradition has uniformly stated the place where they landed, to 
be at the spring southwest of the Episcopal church, at which a house 
has recently been built by Mr. Nelicmiah Dodge." Moses Brown. 

II Mrs. Hemans' noble ode, •• The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers." 
This beautiful stanza applies with more literal truth to Roger Wil- 
liams and his companions, than to all the Pilgrim fathers. 

!! Published in the Providence Gazette, from January to March, 
1765, and republished in the 2 Mass. His. Col. ix. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 103 

" some time in the year 1634." Hutchinson (vol. i. p. 41) 
assigns the same year. Later writers have naturally been 
led into the same mistake. Backus (vol. i. p. 70) states, 
that in January, 1630, Mr. Williams left Massachusetts, 
which is the right date, according to the modern mode of 
computing time, though, by the style, which then prevailed, 
it was 1635. 

But the period of his banishment is fixed decisively by the 
records of Massachusetts, and by Winthrop's Journal. 
His sentence of banishment was passed, November 3, 
1635.* In January following, according to Winthrop (vol. 
i. p. 175) the Court resolved to send him to England, and 
the messengers found, that he had departed from Salem 
three days before their arrival. 

In his letter to Major Mason, Mr. Williams says, " The 
next year after my banishment, the Lord drew the bow of 
the Pequod war against the country." This war commen- 
ced in July, 1636, with the murder of Oldham. This fact 
corroborates the preceding statement. 

The time of his leaving Seekonk for Providence cannot 
be accurately determined, but we may approach very near 
to the true date. 

Governor Winslow, of Plymouth, who advised him to leave 
Seekonk, entered on his official duties in March, 1635-6. 
This was the only year that he held the office of Governor, 
between 1633 and 1644.t Mr. Williams must, therefore, 
have been at Seekonk, subsequently to the date of Governor 
Winslow's accession to office. 

In Mr. Williams' letter to Major Mason, he says, that 
he " began to build and plant at Seekonk." He did not 
begin to plant, we may presume, till the middle of April, if 
so early. I In the same letter, he speaks of his removal as 
occasioning his "loss of a harvest that year," from which 
remark we may reasonably infer, that the corn had attained 
a considerable growth before he left Seekonk, and conse- 
quently that he did not cross the river till the middle, per- 
haps, of June, 

On the 26th of July, a letter was received from Mr. 
Williams, by Governor Vane, informing him of the murder 

* Mass. Rec. vol. i. p. 1G3. t Backus, vol. i. 74. 

t The Plymouth settlers, in 1623, began to plant their corn the 
middle of April. Prince, p. 210. 



104 MEMOIR OF 

of Mr. Oldham, by the Indians of Block-Island.* This 
letter was written at Providence, and it proves, that Mr. 
Williams had removed thither previously to the 26th of 
July. 

We may safely conclude, that he left Seekonk, not far 
from the middle of June, 1636. The exact day will never, 
it is probable, be ascertained.! 

There is one circumstance, which, perhaps, misled Mr. 
Callender and Governor Hopkins respecting the year of 
Mr. Williams' arrival. In a deed, signed by himself and 
wife, and dated December 20, 1661, he used these words: 
*' Having, in the year one thousand six hundred thirty-four, 
and in the year one thousand six hundred thirty-five, had 
several treaties with Canonicus and Miantinomo, the two 
chief sachems of the Narragansets, and in the end purchased 
of them the lands and meadows upon the two fresh rivers, 
called Moshassuck and Wanasquatucket, the tv/o sachems 
having, by a deed under their hands, two years after the 
sale thereof, established and confirmed the bounds of these 
lands." 

The statement, that he had held several treaties with the 
Narragauset sachems, in 1634 and 1635, presents some 
difficulty. But we have already seen, that while at 
Plymouth and at Salem, he held some intercourse with 
these chiefs. In a manuscript letter, already quoted, he 
says : 

" I spared no cost towards them, and in gifts to 
Ousamequin and all his, and to Canonicus and all his, 
tokens and presents, many years before I came in person 
to the Narraganset; and therefore when I came, I was 
welcome to Ousamequin and to the old prince Canonicus, 
who was most shy of all English to his last breath." 

It is probable, therefore, that the " treaties" which he 
mentions, as having been held in 1634 and 1635, were 
propositions concerning lands, made by him, perhaps, to the 

" Winthrop, vol. i. p. 190. 

t In a letter to the author, from John Rowland, Esq. of Providence, 
one of the most intelligent and active members of the Rhode-Island 
Historical Society, he says, " When our Society was first formed, 
it was proposed to fix on the day of his arrival here, as the day of 
the annual meetings of the Society; and till that day could be 
ascertained, we decided on the day of the date of the charter of 
Charles II." 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 105 

chiefs, through Indians, vvhoin he saw at Boston or Salem, 
and by whom he was in the habit of sending to them 
presents. We have already intimated a conjecture, that 
for some time before his banishment, he had entertained 
the thought of a settlement in the Indian country. If so, 
it was natural for him to enter into negotiations for lands. 
But these propositions, whatever they were, were not 
concluded in the years which he mentions. He says, that 
" in the end,^' he purchased the lands at Providence, and 
that the deed was dated two years after the purchase. 
We accordingly find, that the deed was dated " at 
Narraganset, the 24th of the first month, commonly 
called March, in the second year of the plantation, or 
planting at Moshassuck, or Providence." The year is not 
mentioned in the instrument, but it is known to have been 
1637-8.* This deed corresponds with Mr. Williams' 
statement, and refers to the year 1636 as the time of his 
actual purchase, and also as that of his arrival. 

We will add another fact, to strengthen a position, which 
has, perhaps, been sufficiently established. A parchment 
deed, now in the possession of Moses Brown, is dated the 
'' 14th day of the second month, in the 5th year of our 
situation, or plantation, at Moshassuck, or Providence, and 
in the 17th year of King Charles, &c. 1641. "t This deed 
also points to the year 1636, as the date of the first settle- 
ment of Providence. 

In June, of this year, the settlement of Hartford (Con.) 
was begun. Rev. Messrs. Hooker and Stone, who had 
been settled at Newtown, (now Cambridge) removed, with 
their whole church, and founded the city of Hartford. A 
fort had been built, the preceding year, at Say brook, at the 
mouth of the river Connecticut, and small settlements 
had been commenced at Weathersfield and Windsor. 

* Backus, vol. i. p. 89, t Rhode-Island Register, 1828. 



10 



lOf) MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Purchase of lands from the Indians — division of the lands among 
the settlers. 

The spot where Mr. Williams and his companions 
landed was within the jurisdiction of the Narraganset 
Indians.*' The sachems of this tribe were Canonicus, 
and his nephew Miantinomo. The former was an old 
man, and he probably associated with him his young 
nephew, as better fitted to sustain the toils and cares of 
royalty. Their residence is said by Gookin to have been 
about Narraganset Bay, and on the island of Canonicut. 

The first object of Mr. Williams would naturally be, to 
obtain from the sachems a grant of land for his new 
colony. He probably visited them, and received a verbal 
cession of the territory, which, two years afterwards, was 
formally conveyed to him by a deed. This instrument 
may properly be quoted here :t 

"At Narraganset, the 24th of the first month, com- 
monly called March, the second year of the plantation or 
planting at Moshassuck, or Providence : Memorandum, 
that we, Canonicus and Miantinomo, the two chief sachems 

* "■ Under the general name of Narraganset, v/cre included Nar- 
rao-anset proper, and Coweset. Narraganset proper extended south 
from v.'hat is now called Warwick to the ocean; Coweset, from 
Narraganset northerly to the Nipmuck country, which now forms 
Oxford, (Mass.) and some other adjoining towns. The western 
boundaries of Narraganset and Coweset cannot he definitely ascer- 
tained. Gookin says, the Narraganset jurisdiction extended thirty 
or forty miles from Seekonk river and Narraganset Bay, including 
the islands, southwesterly to a place called Wekapage, four or five 
miles to the eastward of Fawcatuck river ; that it included a part of 
Long-Island, Block-Island, Coweset and Niantick, and received 
tribute from some of the Nipmucks. After some research, I am in- 
duced to believe, that the Nianticks occupied the territory now 
called Westerly. If so, then the jurisdiction of the Narragansets 
extended to the Pawcatuck, and perhaps beyond it." — Whatcheer, 
Notes, p. 176. 

1 This is transcribed from a copy furnished by John IJowland, 
Esq. It differs a little from that contained in Backus, vol. i. p. 89. 
The orthography is conformed to modern usage. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 107 

of Narraganset, having two years since sold unto Roger 
Williams the lands and meadows upon the two fresh rivers, 
called Moshassuck and Wanasqnatucket, do now, by these 
presents, establish and confirm the bounds of these lands, 
from the river and fields of Pawtucket, the great hill of 
Notaquoncanot, on the northwest, and the town of Masha- 
paug, on the west.* We also, in consideration of the 
many kindnesses and services he hath continually done 
for us, both with our friends of Massachusetts, as also at 
Connecticut, and Apaum, or Plymouth, we do freely give 
unto him all that land from those rivers reaching to Paw- 
tuxet river f- as also the grass and meadows upon the 
said Pawtuxet river. In witness whereof, we have here- 
unto set our hands. 

The mark (a bow) of CANONICUS. 
The mark (an arrow) of MIANTINOMO. 
In the presence of 
The mark of Sohash. 
The mark of Alsomunsit. 

" 1639. Memorandum. 3d month, 9th day, this was all 
again confirmed by Miantinomo. He acknowledged, that 
he also [illegible]! and gave up the streams of Pawtucket 
and Pawtuxet, without limits, we might have for our use 
of cattle. 

Witness hereof, 

Roger Williams, 

Benedict Arnold." 

The lands thus ceded to Mr. Williams he conveyed to 
twelve men, who accompanied, or soon joined, him, re- 
serving for himself an equal part only. Before we narrate 
the particulars of this transaction, a few remarks are 
necessary. 

It appears from the tenor of the deed, and from other 

* '^ The great hill, Notaquoncanot, mentioned as a bound, is three 
miles west from Weybosset bridge. Mashapaug is about two miles 
south of the hill .—J . H . " 

t Mr. Backus (vol. i. p. 90) has this reading: "■ He acknowledged 
this his act and hand ; up the streams," &c. Bvit the reading in 
the text is retained, according to Mr. Rowland's copy. The deed 
was written by Roger Williams, but the memorandum by some 
other person. 



108 MEMOIR OF 

evidence, that the original sale included only the lands 
mentioned in the first part of the deed. These are said 
by the sachems to have been " sold" to Mr. Williams. 
The grass and meadows on Pawtuxet river are said to be 
given to him, in consideration of his services. 

An interesting question, which occasioned much de- 
bate in the early times of the colony, claim.s consideration 
here. ^V^re the lands, ceded by the sachems, so con- 
veyed, that they became the property of Roger Williams 
himself, and might he, with justice and honor, have sold 
or retained them, as he pleased? An answer to this ques- 
tion will throw light on his subsequent conduct. 

The conveyance in the deed is made to him alone. 
The title, consequently, was vested in him, so far as the 
instrument went. But this fact does not decide the point. 
It was a subject of accusation against him, that the con- 
veyance was not made to him and his associates. Did he, 
then, act on behalf of others, as well as for himself? 

If his own solemn and often repeated assertions are 
worthy of credit, he obtained the lands by his own money 
and influence, and might have held them as his property. 

He argues the case at large, in his letter to the Com- 
missioners, in 1677, to whom he was accused of unfair 
conduct respecting the lands. 

He asserts, in the first place, " It is not true, that I 
was employed by any, was supplied by any, or desired any 
to come v/ith me into these parts. My soul's desire was, 
to do the natives good, and to that end to learn their lan- 
guage, (vv'hich I afterwards printed) and therefore desired 
not to be troubled with English company." He adds, 
that " o»t of pity, he gave leave to several persons to 
come along in his company." He makes the same state- 
ment in his deed of 1661 : — " I desired it might be for a 
shelter for persons distressed for conscience. I then con- 
sidering the condition of divers of my distressed country- 
men, I communicated my said purchase unto my loving 
friends, [whom he names] who then desired to take shel- 
ter here with me." 

It seems, then, that his original design was to come 
alone, probably to dwell among the Indians, and do them 
good; but he altered his plan, and resolved to establish a 
refuge for those who might flee from persecution. The 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 109 

project was his own, and worthy of his generous and lib- 
eral mind. He certainly was not employed, as an agent, 
to purchase lands for others. He uses another argument : 
" I mortgaged my house in Salem (worth some hundreds) 
for supplies to go through, and, therefore, was it a single 
business." 

Having thus shown that he acted for himself, and on 
his own responsibility, he states, that the lands were pro- 
cured from the sachems by his influence alone. He enu- 
merates several advantages which he enjoyed in this 
negotiation : "1. A constant, zealous desire to dive into 
the natives' language, 2.^ God was pleased to give me a 
painful, patient spirit to lodge with them in their filthy, 
smoky holes, (even while I lived at Plymouth and Salem) 
to gain their tongue. 3. I spared no cost towards them, 
and in gifts to Ousamequin, yea, and all his, and to Ca- 
nonicus, and all his, tokens and presents, many years 
before I came in person to the Narraganset, and when I 
came, I was welcome to Ousamequin, and to the old 
prince Canonicus, who was most shy of all English, to his 
last breath. 4. I was known by all the Wampanoags 
•and the Narragansets to be a public speaker at Plymouth 
and Salem, and, therefore, Vv^ith them, held as a sachem. 
5. I could debate with them (in a great measure) in their 
own language. 6. I had the favor and countenance of 
that noble soul, Mr. Vv'inthrop, whom all Indians re- 
spected." 

He proceeds to state, respecting Canonicus, that " it 
was not thousands nor tens of thousands of money could 
have bought of him an English entrance into this Bay." 

In the deed, already quoted, he says, " By God's mer- 
ciful assistance, I was the procurer of the purchase, not by 
monies nor payment, the natives being so shy and jealous, 
that monies could not do it, but by that language, acquain- 
tance and favor with the natives, and other advantages, 
which it pleased God to give me ; and also bore the 
charges and venture of all the gratuities, which I gave to 
the great sachems, and other sachems round about us, and 
lay engaged for a loving and peaceable neighborhood with 
them, to my great charge and travel."* 

* Backus, vol. i. p. 94, 
10* 



110 M E M O I R O F* 

These facts prove, that the lands were granted to Mr. 
Williams, as a personal favor, as an expression of grati- 
tude on the part of the sachems, and as a remuneration 
for presents, which they had been receiving from him for 
several years. Mr. Williams, then, v/as entitled to make 
the assertion, which is contained in his touching letter to 
the town of Providence, in 1654 : " I have been blamed 
for parting with Moshassuck, and afterwards Pawtuxet, 
(which were mine own, as truly as any man's coat upon 
his back) without reserving to myself a foot of land, or an 
inch of voice, more than to my servants and strangers."* 

Mr. Williams was thus the legal proprietor of the lands 
which were ceded to him, and he might have remained 
so, if he had pleased. He had a clear title from the In- 
dians, and he had, a few years later certainly, sufficient 
influence with the rulers in England, to obtain a recog- 
nition of his rights, and a confirmation of his authority. 
He might, doubtless, have been, like William Penn, the 
proprietary of his colony, and might have exercised a con- 
trol over its government. He would, we may easily be- 
lieve, have exercised his authority as wisely and beneficially 
as the great legislator of Pennsylvania. The peace of his 
settlement and his own comfort would, perhaps, have been 
promoted, if he had retained this pov/er awhile, instead of 
committing it to the whole company of settlers, among whom, 
from the nature of the colony, as a refuge for " all sorts of 
consciences," some heterogeneous and discordant tempers 
might be expected to find admission. That he was bldincd 
for this conduct, we know from his letter to the town of 
Providence, already quoted ;t and as that letter was writ- 

* Backus, vol. i. p. 290. 

t See above. He adds, " It hath' been told me, that I labored 
for a licentious and contentious people ; that I have foolishly parted 
with tov/n and colony advantages, by which I might have preserved 
both town and colony in as good order as any in the country about 
us.' The following letter from his son may be properly quoted 
here, as confirming the preceding statements : 

'• To all them that deem themselves purchasers in the town of 
Providence, if they be real purchasers, I would have them make it 
appear. 

" Gentlemen, 
" I thought good in short to present you with these few lines, 
concerning the bounds of Providence, &c. I have put forth several 



ROGER WILLIAMS. Ill 

ten soon after his return from England, we may infer, that 
the censure came from leading men there. 

But he chose to found his colony on pure democratic prin- 
ciples ; as a commonwealth, where all civil power should 
be exercised by the people alone, and where God should 
be the only ruler over the conscience. 

We will now relate the facts respecting his division of 
the lands among his associates. 

The persons who accompanied him, at his first landing, 
were William Harris, John Smith, Joshua Verin, Thomas 
Angell and Francis Wickes. Several others joined him 
at various times, previously to October 8, 1638, on 



queries to several men in the township, to be answered ; but have 
not any answer from any of them ; and, as I judge, doth not care to 
have any discourse about it. Therefore, now I speak to you all, de- 
siring your honors will be pleased to consider of the matter, and to 
answer me to one or two queries ; that is, whether you have any 
thing under my father's hand to prove the bounds of this town afore 
those twelve men were concerned; or whether my father disposed 
of any of the township to any other persons since the twelve men 
were first in power, &c. If my father had disposed or sold his 
whole township, and they he sold it to, or have it under his hand, 
prove the sale, although it v/as but for one penny, God forbid that 
ever I should open my mouth abcut it, &c. It is evident, that this 
township was my father's, and it is held in his name against all 
unjust clamors, &c. Can you find such o.nothfr now alive, or in 
this age ? He gave away his lands and other estate, to them that 
he thought were most in wa,nt, until he gave away all, so that he 
had nothing to help him.self, so that he being not in a way to get 
for his supply, and being ancient, it must needs pinch somewhere. 
I do not desire to say vviiat I have done for both tcither and mother. 
I judge they wanted nothing that was convenient for ancient 
people, &.C. What my father gave, I believe he had a good intent 
in it, and thought God would provide for his family. He never 
gave me but about three acres of land, and but a httle afoxe he de- 
ceased. It looked hard, that out of so much at his disposing, that I 
should have so little, and he so little. For the rest, &c. I did not 
think to be so large ; so referring your honors to those queries you 
have among you, 

" Your friend and neighbor, 

'• DANIEL WILLIAMS. 
'• Providence, Aug. 24, 1710. 

'' If a covetous man had that opportunity as he had. most of this 
town would have been his tenants, I believe. 

D. W." 



112 M"EMX)1P. OF 

which day, Mr. Williams executed an instrument, of the 
following tenor.* 

" Providence, 8th of the &th month, 1638, (50 called.) 
" Memorandum, that I, Roger Williams, having formerly 
purchased of Canonicus and Miantinomo, this our situation, 
or plantation, of New Providence, t viz. the two fresh rivers, 
Wanasquatucket and Moshassuck, and the ground and 
meadows thereupon ; in consideration of thirty pounds re- 
ceived from the inhabitants of said place, do freely and 
fully pass, grant and make over equal right and power of 
enjoying and disposing of the same grounds and lands 
unto my loving friends and neighbors, Stukely Westcott, 
William Arnold, Thomas James, Robert Cole, John Greene, 
John Throckmorton, William Harris, William Carpenter, 
Thomas Olney, Francis Weston, Richard Waterman, 
Ezekiel Hollimau, and such others as the major part of us 
shall admit into the same fellowship of vote with us : — As 
also I do freely make and pass over equal right and power 
of enjoying and disposing of the lands and grounds reach- 
ing from the aforesaid rivers unto the great river Paw- 
tuxet, with the grass and meadows thereupon, which was 
so lately given and granted by the aforesaid sachems to me. 
Witness my hand, 

ROGER WILLIAMS."t 

On the 20th of December, 1G61, the following deed was 
executed. It is inserted here, because it is an interesting 
document, and it throws much light on the transactlui.3 
which we are considering. 

* The first deed was '' written in a strait 01^ time and haste," as 
he alleged, and contained only the initials of the names of the 
grantees. He was censured for this by some of them, as if he had 
done it for some sinister design I They urged him to give them 
another deed, which he finally did, on the 22d of December, 1666, 
when the document in the text was written, retaining the original 
date. 

t The name, JVcio Providaice, appears in a few documents written 
by Mr. Williams himself, and by others, but it was soon discon- 
tinued. The origin of the epithet JYetc may have been, a desire to 
distinguish the town from the island of Providence, one of the Ba- 
hama islands, on which a plantation was begun in 1629. Holmes' 
Annals, vol. i. p. 201. This island has since received the name of 
New Providence. The town of Roger Williams was entitled to the 
precedence. 

t Backus, vol. i. p. 92. 



R <) G E R W I L L I A M S. J 13 

'^ Be it known unto all men by these presents, that I, 
Roger Williams, of the town of Providence, in the Narra- 
ganset Bay, in New-England, having, in the year one 
thousand six hundred thirty-four, and in the year one thou- 
sand six hundred thirty-five, had several treaties with Ca- 
nonicus and Miantinomo, the two chief sachems of the 
Narraganset, and in the end purchased of them the lands 
and meadows upon the two fresh rivers called Moshassuck 
and Wanasquatucket, the two sachems having, by a deed, 
under their hands, two years after the sale thereof, estab- 
lished and confirmed the bounds of these lands from the 
rivers and fields of Pavv^tucket, the great hill of Notaquon- 
canot on the northwest, and the town of Mashapaug on 
the west, notwithstanding 1 had the frequent promise of 
Miantinomo, my kind friend, that it should not be land 
that I should want about these bounds mentioned, pro- 
vided that I satisfied the Indians there inhabiting, I hav- 
ing made covenant of peaceable neighborhood with all 
the sachems and natives round about us, and having, of a 
sense of God's merciful Providence unto me in my distress, 
called the place Providence, I desired it might be for a 
shelter for persons distressed for conscience. I then con- 
sidering the condition of divers of my distressed country- 
men, I communicated my said purchase unto my loving 
friends, John Throckmorton, William Arnold, William 
Harris, Stukely Westcott, John Greene, Senior, Thomas 
Olney, Senior, Richard Waterman, and others, who then 
desired to take shelter here with me, and in succession 
unto so many others as we should receive into the fellow- 
ship and society of enjoying and disposing of the said pur- 
chase ; and besides the first that were admitted, our town 
records declare, that afterwards we received Chad 
Brown, William Field, Thomas Harris, Senior, William 
Wickenden, Robert Williams, Gregory Dexter, and others, 
as our town book declares; and whereas, by God's merci- 
ful assistance, I was the procurer of the purchase, not by 
monies nor payment, the natives being so shy and jealous 
that monies could not do it, but by that language, acquain- 
tance and favor with the natives, and other advantages, 
which it pleased God to give me, and also bore the charges 
and venture of all the gratuities, which I gave to the great 
sachems and other sachems and natives round about us, 



114 MEMOIR OF 

and lay engaged for a loving and peaceable neighborhood 
with them, to my great charge and travel ; it was there- 
fore thought fit by some loving friends, that I should re- 
ceive some loving consideration and gratuity, and it was 
agreed between us, that every person, that should be ad- 
mitted into the fellowship of enjoying land and disposing 
of the purchase, should pay thirty shillings unto the public 
stock ; and first, about thirty pounds should be paid unto 
myself, by thirty shillings a person, as they were admitted ; 
this sum I received, and in love to my friends, and with 
respect to a town and place of succor for the distressed 
as aforesaid, I do acknowledge the said sum and payment 
as full satisfaction ; and whereas in the year one thousand 
six hundred and thirty-seven,* so called, I delivered the 
deed subscribed by the two aforesaid chief sachems, so 
much thereof as concerneth the aforementioned lands, 
from myself and from my heirs, unto the whole number of 
the purchasers, with all my power, right and title therein, 
reserving only unto myself one single share equal unto 
any of the rest of that number ; I now again, in a more 
formal way, under my hand and seal, confirm my former 
resignation of that deed of the lands aforesaid, and bind 
myself, my heirs, my executors, my administrators and 
assigns, never to molest any of the said persons already 
received, or hereafter to be received, into the society of 
purchasers, as aforesaid ; but that they, their heirs, execu- 
tors, administrators and assigns, shall at all times quietly 
and peaceably enjoy the premises and every part thereof, 
and I do further by these presents bind myself, my heirs, 
my executors, my administrators and assigns, never to lay 
any claim, nor cause any claim to be laid, to any of the 
lands aforementioned, or unto any part or parcel thereof, 
more than unto my own single share, by virtue or pretence 
of any former bargain, sale or mortgage whatsoever, or 
jointures, thirds or entails made by me, the said Roger 

* This seems to be loosely expressed. Mr. Williams could not 
mean that he delivered the deed to the grantees in 1637, for several 
of the persons named, did not arrive in Providence till after April, 
1G38. (Backus, vol. i. p. 92.) His own deed of cession is dated 
Oct. 8, 1638. He probably meant, that he delivered the deed, signed 
by the sachems in 1637, to the purchasers. This deed was dated 
March 24, the last day of 1637, old style. 



li O S E ft W J L L I A M S. 115 

Williams, or of any other person, either for, by^ through or 
under me. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my 
hand and seal, the twentieth day of December, in the 
present year one thousand six hundred sixty-one. 

" ROGER WILLIAMS, (Seal.*) 

" Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of us, 
Thomas Smith, Joseph Carpenter. Memorandum, the 
words, of the purchase, were interlined before these presents 
were sealed, I, Mary Williams, wife unto Roger Wil- 
liams, do assent unto the premises. Witness my hand, 
this twentieth day of December, in this present year one 
thousand six hundred sixty-one. 

The mark of(M. W.) MARY WILLIAMS.f 
*' Acknowledged and subscribed before me, 

" WILLIAM FIELD, Assistant. 
'* Enrolled, April the Gth, 1662, pr. me, 

" THOMAS OLNEY, Junr., Town ClerkJ' 

From this document, it appears, that the twelve persons 
to whom the lands, on the Moshassuck and Wanasquatucket 
rivers, were conveyed by Mr. Williams, did not pay him 
any part of the thirty pounds, which he received ; but that 
the sum of thirty shillings was exacted of every person 
who was afterwards admitted, to form a common stock. 
From this stock, thirty pounds were paid to Mr. Williams, 
for the reasons mentioned in the instrument last quoted. t 

For the lands on the Pawtuxet river, however, Mr. 
Williams received twelve-thirteenths of twenty pounds, 
from the twelve persons named in the deed of October 
8, 1638. On the same day, the following instrument was 
executed : — 

" It is agreed, this day abovesaid, that all the meadow 
grounds at Pawtuxet, bounding upon the fresh river, on 
both sides, are to be impropriated unto those thirteen per- 
sons, being now incorporated together in our town of 

* An anchor, rechning. 

t We are surprised at the form of this signature. That Mrs. 
WilUams could not write, would be incredible, if it were not ren- 
dered certain that she could write, by a reference to her letters, in 
a public document at Providence. It is probable, that she wrote 
the initials, believing them to be sufficient ; and some person added 
the words, the mark of, and wrote the name at length. 

t Mr. Backus so understood it. Vol. i. p. 93. 



116 MEMOIR. OP 

Providence, viz. : Ezekiel Hollimaii, Francis Weston, 
Roger Williams, Thomas Olney, Robert Cole, William 
Carpenter, William Harris, John Throckmorton, Richard 
Waterman, John Greene, Thomas James, William Arnold, 
Stukely Westcott ; and to be equally divided among them, 
and every one to pay an equal proportion to raise up the 
sum of twenty pounds for the same ; and if it shall come 
to pass, that some, or any one, of these thirteen persons 
aforesaid, do not pay or give satisfaction of his or their 
equal proportion of the aforesaid sum of twenty pounds, 
by this day eight weeks, which will be the 17th day of the 
10th month next ensuing, then they or he shall leave their 
or his proportion of meadow grounds unto the rest of those 
thirteen persons, to be at their disposing, who shall make 
up the whole sum of twenty pounds, which is to be paid to 
Roger Wihiams." 

This money was punctually paid on the 3d of Decem- 
ber following, and was acknowledged as follows : — 

'' Accordino; to former agreement,.. I received of the 
neighbors abovesaid, the full sum of c^'18 lis. Sd. Per me, 

ROGER WILLIAMS." 

lie thus retained an equal share in the lands on the 
Pawtuxet river, which were very valuable to the new settlers, 
on account of the natural meadows along its banks. These 
lands vt'ere afterwards the occasion of a protracted contention. 

From the facts which we have stated, it appears, that 
Mr. Williams generously admitted the first twelve proprie- 
tors of the Providence purchase to an equal share with 
himself, without exacting from them any remuneration. 
The thirty pounds which he received vvere paid by suc- 
ceeding settlers, at the rate of thirty shillings each. But 
this sum of thirty pounds was not paid to him, as an equiv- 
alent for the land. It was, as he calls it, a " loving gra- 
tuity," and was intended to remunerate him for the 
presents which he had given to the Indians, and for the 
expenses which he had incurred in procuring the lands. 
But he affirmed, that all which he received was far less 
than he expended.* The same may be said respecting 
the money paid for the Pawtuxet lands. 

* He found " Indian gifts" very costly. He was under the neces- 
sity of making frequent presents. He says, that he let the Indians 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 117 

The conduct of Mr. Williams, in these transactions, 
must be acknowledged to have been highly honorable, dis- 
interested and liberal. He held the title to the whole ter- 
ritory, and he might, apparently, have amassedwealth and 
gratified ambition, by retaining the control of the town, 
and selling the lands, to be held of him as the proprietor. 
But he renounced all plans of power and emolument ; he 
placed himself on an equality with the other settlers, and 
surrendered the territory to the whole body of freemen, 
among whom he claimed no other influence than that which 
sprung from his personal character. The sum which he 
received was not even a remuneration for his actual ex- 
penses in procuring the territory. 

It does not diminish this praise, that the settlers were 
obliged to satisfy the claims of many individual Indians. 
The grant from the sachems might, perhaps, have been 
considered as a full title ; but the justice and humanity of 
Roger Williams and his friends, led them to make com- 
pensation to the natives who occupied the territory. The 
whole sum paid to Mr. Williams and to the Indians, for 
Providence and Pawtuxet, was stated by William Harris, 
in 1677, to have been one hundred and sixty pounds. 

have his shallop and pinnace at command, transporting fifty at a 
time, and lodging fifty at his house ; that he never denied them any 
thing lawful ; that when he established a trading house at Narra- 
ganset, Canonicus had freely what he desired ; and when the old 
chief was about to die, he sent for Mr. Williams, and " desired to 
be buried in my cloth, of free gift.'' 

u 



lis 



MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER IX. 



Settlement of the town of Providence — Whatclieer — islands of Pru- 
dence, Patience and Hope. 

Our account of the division of the lands has led us 
onward to a period more than two years after Mr. Williams' 
arrival. Some time must have been spent in his negotia- 
tions with the sachems ; but he certainly erected a house 
soon after his landing, for in a letter, written v/ithin a 
short time from that event, he says, " Miantinomo kept his 
barbarous court lately at my house," and in his letter to 
Major Mason, he mentions, that he entertained General 
Stoughton, at his house, in May, 1637, when the Massa- 
chusetts troops were on their march against the Pequods, 

It is probable, that Mrs. Williams and her two children 
came from Salem to Providence, in the summer of 1636, 
in company with several persons, who wished to join their 
exiled pastor.* 

The family of Mr. Williams Vv'as now dependent on his 
exertions for support. No supplies could be derived from 
Massachusetts. The natives were unable to afford much 
aid. It is probable, that Mr. Williams had nearly expended 
all his funds, in the support of his family during his 
absence, and in the negotiations with the Indians. Of his 
poverty,! there is evidence, in a touching incident, men- 
tioned in his letter to Major Mason. It is alike honorable 
to all the parties : " It pleased the Father of Spirits to touch 
many hearts, dear to him, with many relentings ; amongst 
which, that great and pious soul, Mr. Winslow, melted, 
and kindly visited me at Providence, and put a piece of 
gold into the hands of my wife, for our supply." 

In a deed, which was enrolled January 29, 1667, Mr. 
Williams says, that he planted, with his own hands, at his 
first coming, the two Indian fields, Whatcheer and Saxi- 

* Throckmorton, Olney and Westcott, three of the first proprietors, 
were members of the Salem church. Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 371. 

t Hubbard repeatedly alludes, in a somewhat taunting tone, to the 
poverty of Roger Williams.— pp. 205, 350. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 119 

frax Hill, which he had purchased of the natives. Thus 
was he forced, as at many other times, to resort to manual 
labor for his subsistence. In his reply to Mr. Cotton, (p. 
38) he says : '* It is not unknown to many witnesses, in 
Plymouth, Salem and Providence, that the discusser's time 
hath not been spent (though as much as any others whoso- 
ever) altogether in spiritual labors and public exercises of 
the word ; but day and night, at home and abroad, on the 
land and water, at the hoe, at the oar, for bread." But he 
sustained all his labors and hardships with a patient spirit, 
and with a steadfast adherence to his principles. 

His house was, undoubtedly, erected near the spot 
where he landed, and a few rods eastward of the celebra- 
ted spring.* Here the wanderer found a resting place. 
This was his home, for more than forty years. Here he 
died, and near the site of his dwelling his ashes were 
deposited. 

It would be an interesting effort of the imagination, to 
contrast the situation of Providence at the time of the 
settlement, with the present condition of that beautiful and 
flourishing town. Where now are busy streets, and ample 
warehouses, and elegant mansions, and a population of 
nearly 20,000 souls, were, at that time, dense forests, 
and a few scattered Indian families. How astonishing is 
the change ! Roger Williams himself, with all his vigor of 
imagination, and his ardent temperament, could not have 
anticipated the expansion of his little settlement to its 
present amplitude, beauty and strength. The glorious 
vision could not have visited his mind ; but he acted under 
the power of that prophetic faith, which assured him of 
success, in his efforts for the welfare of men. He looked 
beyond the present, to the bright future, and was confident, 
that his principles, though then misunderstood and rejected, 
would ultimately triumph. 

In the course of two years, Mr. Williams was joined by 
a number of friends from Massachusetts, with whom, as 
we have seen, he shared the lands which he had obtained. 

* The author of Whatcheer, (p. 163) has accommodated his hero 
with the dwelling of a deceased Indian powaw. Poets have a license 
to build castles in the air, or on the land. I fear that Roger Williams 
was not so easily furnished with a habitation. It was, however, wo 
may suppose, sufficiently humble. ^ 



120 MEMOIR OP 

The community, thus formed, were invested with the 
power of admitting others to the privileges of citizenship. 
Their number was soon increased, by emigrants from 
Massachusetts, and from Europe.* It was the design of 
Mr. Williams, that his colony should be open to all persons 
who might choose to reside there, without regard to their 
religious opinions. He was careful, nevertheless, to pro- 
vide for the maintenance of the civil peace. Every in- 
habitant was required to subscribe the following covenant : 

" We, whose names are here under-written, being desir- 
ous to inhabit in the town of Providence, do promise to 
submit ourselves, in active or passive obedience, to all such 
orders or agreements as shall be made for public good of 
the body, in an orderly way, by the major consent of the 
present inhabitants, masters of families, incorporated to- 
gether into a township, and such others whom they shall 
admit unto the same, only in civil things.'^ 

This simple instrument, which combines the principles of 
a pure democracy, and of unrestricted religious liberty, was 
the basis of the first government in Providence. It was 
undoubtedly drawn up by Roger Williams. It bears the 
impress of his character, and it was the germ of those free 
institutions, under which Rhode-Island has flourished till 
the present day. 

The government of the town was thus placed in the 
hands of the inhabitants ; and the legislative, judicial and 
executive functions were exercised, for several years, by the 
citizens in town meeting. Two deputies were appointed, 
from time to time, whose duties were, to preserve order, to 
settle disputes, to call town meetings, to preside in them, 
and to see that their resolutions were executed.! But the 
power of the deputies was very limited, and their term of 
office short. A form of government so simple could not 
exist, except in a small community, and among men whose 
moral principles were pure, and their habits peaceful. 
Winthrop was mistaken, when he asserted of the settlers 



* Among these, were Chad Brown, William Field, Thomas Harris, 
William Wickenden, Robert Williams (brother of Roger) Richard 
Scott, William Reynolds, John Warner, Benedict Arnold, Joshua 
Winsor and Thomas Hopkins. Backus, vol. i. p. 93. 

t Gov. Hopkins, History of Providence , 2 Mass. His. Col. ix. p. 183. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 1^1 

at Providence, that they " would have no magistrates."* 
If they had not the Usual forms, they had the essence of 
majristracy. 

The settlers applied themselves to agriculture, for sub- 
sistence. An intelligent antiquarian, of Providence, whose 
opinions are authority on all points touching its early his- 
tory, says,f that the first inhabitants settled " on such places 
as were most convenient, and planted their corn on the old 
Indian fields, as they could agree among themselves. 
When their number had increased, they laid out what is 
now the Main street, on the east side of the river, and 
divided the land eastward of the street, into lots of six 
acres each, being of equal breadth, and extending back to 
what is now Hope street. There were eventually one hun- 
dred and two of these six acre lots, extending from Mile 
End Brook, wh?ch enters the river a little north of Fox 
Point, to Harrington's Lane, on the north, which lane is 
now the dividing line between Providence and North 
Providence. Each proprietor had one of these six acre 
lots, and on w^hich he built his house. How they were 
located, whether by lot or draft, or by choice, I am not 
informed ; but it is probable that the first comers had their 
choicCj as the six acre lot of Roger Williams was the place 
where he first landed, and had built his house. j: The 
street, now Bowen street, leading from Main to Benefit 
street, divides that part of his lot nearly in the middle. 
The object of locating themselves so near together was for 
security and mutual aid against the Indians, and in con- 
formity to the practice in Europe. Each proprietor, besides 
his town lot, as it was called, took up out land, upland and 
meadows, by grant of the whole in proprietors' meeting. 
These grants were entered on the records. None of them, 



* Vol. i. p. 293. 

t John Rowland, Esq. in a letter to the author. 

t Moses Brown says (Rhode-Island Register, 1828) " Roger Wil- 
liams' lot was No. 38, northward from Mile End Cove, at the south 
end of the town ; William Harris' was No. 36 ; John Smith's, No. 
41 ; Joshua Verins', No. 39, adjoining on the north of Roger Wil- 
liams' lot ; Francis Wickes', No. 35. The Court House appears to be 
standing on No. 34. These first six settlers all became proprietors, 
though Francis Wickes and Thomas Angell did not receive full shares 
till they became of age" 
11* 



12'i MEMOIR OF 

at first, took up sufficient for a farm in one place. Each 
one, besides his upland, as it was termed, or planting land, 
had, in another place, and frequently quite distant, his pro- 
portion of meadow land. This was necessary, because 
there was no hay seed known or in use. They had no 
grass for winter fodder, but bog or salt meadow, or thatch, 
and each must have his share of this, or his cattle would 
perish, or browse in the woods in winter." 

Roger Williams, in addition to his six acre town lot, 
had a lot in the neighborhood of Whatcheer cove. The 
deed, already quoted, may be appropriately introduced here, 
as a document which belongs to the history of Roger Wil- 
liams and of the town : 

" Whereas, by the good Providence of God, I, Roger 
Williams, purchased this plantation of the natives, partly 
by the favors which I had long before with the sachems 
gotten at my cost and hazard, and partly with my own 
monies, paid them, in satisfaction for the settling of the 
said plantation, in the midst of the barbarians round about 
us; and whereas for the name of God and public good, and 
especially for the receiving of such as were troubled else- 
where about the worship of God, I freely parted with my 
whole purchase unto the township, or commonalty, of the 
then inhabitants, and yet reserved to myself the two 
Indian fields, called Whatcheer and Saxifrax Hill, as hav- 
ing peculiarly satisfied the owners of those fields for them, 
besides my general purchase of the whole from the sachems, 
and also planted both those fields at my first coming as my 
own peculiar with mine own hands, and whereas the town 
of Providence by their deputies, then called five Disposers, 
William Field was one, long since laid out unto me the 
aforesaid field called Whatcheer, and adjoined my six 
acre lot unto it, making up together twelve acres by the 
eighteen foot pole, and I having forgotten my bounds, the 
town deputies, William Field and Arthur Fenner, have 
since laid out and measured the said twelve acres unto me 
by the eighteen foot pole as aforesaid. These are to cer- 
tify unto all men, that I, the said Roger Williams, have, for 
a full satisfaction already received from James Ellis, of 
Providence, sold and demised unto the said James Ellis, 
the said twelve acres aforesaid, bounded on the east by 
the river, on the west by a highway between the said 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 123 

twelve acres and the land of Nicholas Power deceased, on 
the north by a highway lying between the said twelve acres 
and William Field's land, and on the south by Mr. Bene- 
dict Arnold's land ; the aforesaid twelve acres I do by these 
presents demise and alienate from myself, my heirs, execu- 
tors, &c. to the aforesaid James Ellis, his heirs, executors, 
^c. with all the appertenances and privileges thereof. 
Witness my hand and seal, 

ROGER WILLIAMS. {An arrow.) 
In the presence of us witnesses, Arthur Fenner, William 

Field, enrolled the 29th day of January, in the year 

1667. 

Pr. me, SHADRACH MANTON, Totm Clerk.'' 

This field, Whatcheer, was afterwards sold to Arthur 
Fenner, Esquire, and is now occupied, as the family seat of 
the Hon. James Fenner, formerly Governor of Rhode- 
Island. 

We may mention here, that Mr. Williams obtained the 
island of Prudence, from the Indians, and held it as a joint 
proprietor with Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts. 
The following letter relates to this transaction :* 

*' The last of the week, I think the 28th of the Sth. 
'' Sir, 

" The bearer, Miantinomo, resolving to go on his visit, I 
am bold to request a word of advice from you, concerning 
a proposition made by Canonicus and himself to me some 
half year since. Canonicus gave an island in this bay to 
Mr. Oldham, by name Chibachuwese, upon condition, as it 
should seem, that he would dwell there near unto them. 
The Lord (in whose hands all our hearts are) turning their 
affections towards myself, they desired me to remove thither 
and dwell nearer to them. I have answered once and 
again, that for the present I mind not to remove ; but if I 
have it from them, I would give them satisfaction for it, and 
build a little house and put in some swine, as understand- 
ing the place to have store of fish and good feeding for 
swine. Of late I have heard, that Mr. Gibbons, upon 
occasion, motioned your desire and his own of putting 
some swine on some of these islands, which hath made me 
since more desire to obtain it, because I might thereby not 

* Copied from 3 His. Col. i. 165. 



124 MEMOIR OV 

only benefit myself, but also pleasure yourself, whom I 
more desire to pleasure and honor. I spoke of it now to 
this sachem, and he tells me, that because of the store of 
fish, Canonicus desires that I would accept half, (it being 
spectacle-wise, and between a mile or two in circuit, as I 
guess) and he would reserve the other ; but I think, if I go 
over, I shall obtain the whole. Your loving counsel, how 
far it may be inoffensive, because it was once (upon a con- 
dition not kept,) Mr. Oldham's. So, with respective 
salutes to your kind self and Mrs. Winthrop, I rest, 
" Your worship's unfeigned, in all I may, 

" ROGER WILLIAMS. 

''For his much honored Mr. Governor, these." 

Governor Winthtop retained his moiety of the island, 
and gave it, in his will, to his son Stephen.* 

Mr. Williams also owned the islands Patience and Hope. 
The names of the three islands are indicative of his mind, 
William Harris said, in 1677, in a somewhat reproachful 
tone, that these islands w^ere " all put away." Mr. Wil- 
liams sold them, perhaps, as he certainly did some other 
portions of his property, to maintain himself and family, 
during his long and unrequited toils, in England, for the 
welfare of the colony. To a native of Rhode-Island, these 
islands should be interesting monuments of the virtues and 
services of her founder. 

Having thus stated the manner in which the settlement 
at Providence was commenced, we must now return to the 
period of the first arrival of Mr. Williams, and narrate briefly 
his agency in averting the imminent danger of a general 
league among the natives for the destruction of the 
colonists. 

* Journal, vol. ii. p. 360. 



^OGER WILLIAMS. 125 



CHAPTER X. 

Mr. Williams prevents tlie Indian league — war with the Pequods— 
their defeat and ruin. 

The Pequods were, as we have already remarked, the 
most warlike tribe of Indians in New-England, and the 
most hostile to the colonists, not perhaps so much from a 
greater degree of ferocity, as from a clearer foresight of the 
effects which the natives had reason to apprehend from the 
increase of the whites. 

In 1634, Captains Stone and Norton, of Massachusetts, 
with eight other Englishmen, were murdered by the In- 
dians, in a small trading vessel, on Connecticut river. It 
is not certain, that the murderers were Pequods, but they 
fled to this tribe for protection, and divided with them the 
property which they had plundered. The Pequods thus 
became responsible for the crime ; and the magistrates of 
Massachusetts sent to them messengers to demand satisfac- 
tion, but without success. The Pequods afterwards sent 
messengers, with gifts, to Massachusetts, exculpating the 
tribe from the guilt of the murder. The Governor and 
Council, after a conference of several days, and a consul- 
tation, as usual, with the principal ministers, concluded 
with them a treaty of peace and friendship.* 

*Winthrop, vol. i. 147, 149. The Pequods agreed to deliver up 
the individuals who were engaged in the murder, and to pay four 
hundred fathoms of wampumpeag, forty beaver skins, and thirty 
otter skins. While the Pequod ambassadors were at Boston, a party 
of the Narragansets came as far as Naponset, and it was rumored 
that their object was to murder the Pequod ambassadors. The 
magistrates had a conference at Roxbury, with the Narragansets, 
(among whom were two sachems) and persuaded them to make 
peace with the Pequods, to which the sachems agreed, the magis- 
trates having secretly promised them, as a condition, a part of the 
wampumpeag, which the Pequods had stipulated to pay. The 
note of Mr. Savage, on this affair, deserves to be repeated: 

'• If any doubt has ever been entertained, in Europe or America, of 
the equitable and pacific principles of the founders of New-England, 
in their relations with the Indians, the secret history, in the forego- 
ing paragraph^ of this negotiation^ should dissipate it. By the unholy 



126 MEMOIR OF 

But no treaty could appease the jealous hostility of the 
Pequods. In July, 1636, a short time after Mr. Williams^ 
removal to Providence, a party of Indians murdered Mr, 
John Oldham, near Block-Island, whither he had gone 
from Massachusetts, in a small barque, for purposes of 
trade. The murderers fled to the Pequods, by wliom they 
were protected. It was suspected, however, that the mur- 
der was contrived by some of the Narragansets and Nian- 
ticks ; and there was evidently some disposition among 
these tribes and the Pequods to forufi a league for the de- 
struction of the English. 

The first intelligence of the murder of Mr. Oldham, and 
of the proposed league, was communicated by Mr. Wil- 
liams, in a letter to Governor Vane, at Boston, a few days 
after the event. With a spirit of forgiveness and philan- 
thropy, which honors his memory, he promptly informed 
those who had so recently expelled him from the colony, 
of the peril which now threatened them. It may be 
alleged, that self-preservation impelled him to appeal to 
Massachusetts for assistance to defeat a project, which, if 
accomplished, would have overwhelmed himself and his 
colony in ruin. But his influence with the Indians was so 
great, that it is probable he might have secured his own 
safety and that of his companions. The merit of his gen- 
erous mediation ought not to be sullied, because his own 

maxims of vulgar policy, the discord of these unfriendly nations 
would have been encouraged, and our European fathers should have 
employed the passions of the aborigines for their mutual destruction. 
On the contrary, an honest artifice was resorted to for their reconcil- 
iatiqu, and the tribute received by us from one offending party was, 
by a Christian deception, divided with their enemies, to procure 
mutual peace. Such mediation is more useful than victory, and 
more honorable than conquest." 

It may be added, here, as an illustration of the temper of the 
times, that Mr. Eliot, the Indian apostle, expressed, in a sermon, 
some disapprobation of this treaty with the Pequods. for this reason, 
among others, that the magistrates and ministers acted without au- 
thority from the people. He was called to account, and Mr. Cotton 
and two other ministers were appointed to convince him of his error. 
The good man appeared to be convinced, and agreed to make a 
public retraction. It is stated by Dr. Bentley, that Mr. Williams, 
then at Salem, expressed his disapprobation of the treaty, doubtless 
on the same ground, of the combination of civil and clerical agency 
in the transaction. But Mr. Williams would not retractj after tlie 
example of Eliot. 



ROGKR WILLIAMS. 127 

welfare was at the same time advanced. Violent passions 
often make men forget or disregard their own interests. A 
vindictive spirit might have been willing to hazard its own 
safety, for the pleasure of ample vengeance on the authors 
of its wrongs. 

The Massachusetts government, on the 24th of August, 
sent by water an armed force of eighty volunteers, under 
the command of John Endicott, Esq. with instructions to 
"put to death the men of Block-Island, but to spare the 
women and children, and to bring them away, and to take 
possession of the island ; and from thence to go to the Pe- 
quods, to demand the murderers of Captain Stone and 
other English, some thousand fathoms of wampum, for 
damages, and some of their children as hostages, which, if 
they should refuse, they were to obtain it by force."* 
These stern orders were not strictly executed ; yet many 
Indians were killed, a large number of wigwams were 
burnt, at Block-Island and on Connecticut river, some 
corn was destroyed, and other damage was done. The 
troops returned to Boston, on the 14th of September, with- 
out the loss of a man. 

This expedition had little effect, except to exasperate the 
natives. Mr. Endicott was the object of many censures for 
returning, without striking a severer blow. But his force 
was small, the winter was approaching, and prudence, un- 
doubtedly, required his return. 

The Pequods became more decidedly hostile. They killed 
several white persons, and made strenuous efforts to induce 
the powerful Narraganset tribe to forget their mutual ani- 
mosity, and join with them in a war of extermination 
against the English. " There had been," says Hutchin- 
son, (vol. i. p. 60) " a fixed, inveterate enmity, between the 
two tribes ; but on this occasion the Pequods were willing 
to smother it, their enmity against the English being the 
strongest of the two ; and although they had never heard 
the story of Polypheaie and Ulysses, yet they artfully urged, 
that the English were come to dispossess them of their 
country, and that all the Narragansets could hope for from 
their friendship, was the favor of bejng the last devoured : 
whereas, if the Indians would unite, they might easily de- 

* Winthrop, vol. i. p. 192. 



128 MEMOIR or 

stroy the English, or force them to leave the country, with- 
out being exposed themselves to any hazard. They need^ 
not come to open battles ; firing their houses, killing their 
cattle, and lying in wait for them as they went about their 
ordinary business, would soon deprive them of all means 
of subsisting. But the Narragansets preferred the present 
pleasure of revenge upon their mortal enemies, to the 
future happiness of themselves and their posterity." 

The chief merit of preventing this league^ and thus, 
perhaps, saving the whites from destruction, is due to Mr. 
Williams. The magistrates of Massachusetts solicited his 
mediation with the Narragansets. They did not ask it in 
vain. Mr. Williams instantly undertook the service, and 
with much toil, expense and hazard, he succeeded in de- 
feating the endeavors of the Pequods to win over the Nar- 
ragansets to a coalition against the English. Mr. Williams^ 
in his letter to Major Mason, has incidentally related his 
agency in this affair. It is due to him, to quote here his 
own simple and energetic words : 

*' Upon letters received from the Governor and Council 
at Boston, requesting me to use my utmost and speediest 
endeavors to break and hinder the league labored for by 
the Pequods and Mohegans against the English, (excusing 
the not sending of company and supplies by the haste of 
the business) the Lord helped me immediately to put my 
life into my hand, and, scarce- acquainting my wife, to 
ship myself alone, in a poor canoe, and to cut through a 
stormy wind, with great seas, every minute in hazard of 
life, to the sachem's house. Three days and nights my 
business forced me to lodge and mix with the bloody Pe- 
quod ambassadors, whose hands and arms, methought, 
reeked with the blood of my countrymen, murdered and 
massacred by them on Connecticut river, and from whom 
I could not but nightly look for their bloody knives at my 
own throat also. God wondrously preserved me, and 
helped me to break to pieces the Pequods' negotiation and 
design ; and to make and finish, by many travels and 
charges, the English league with the Narragansets and 
Mohegans against the Pequods." 

In consequence of Mr. Williams' agency, the Narragan- 
set sachem, Miantinomo, came to Boston, on the 21st of 
October, 1636, with two sons of Canonicus, besides another 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 129 

sachem, and about twenty attendants. He was received 
with much parade, and a treaty of perpetual peace and 
alliance was concluded, in which it was stipulated, that 
neither party should make peace with the Pequods without 
the consent of the other.* Governor Winthrop mentions 
a circumstance, which is highly honorable to Mr. Wil- 
liams, because it proves the confidence which was reposed 
in him, both by the Indians and by the government of 
Massachusetts. The treaty was written in the English 
language, and as it was found difficult to make the Indians 
understand the articles perfectly, '' we agreed," says Win- 
throp, " to send a copy of them to Mr. Williams, who 
could best interpret them to them." This measure was 
probably adopted, at the suggestion of the Indians, who 
knew that Mr. Williams was their friend, and would neither 
himself deceive them, nor connive at any attempt at de- 
ception on the part of others. It is a proof, also, of the 
integrity of the Massachusetts rulers, on this occasion, that 
they were willing to submit their proceedings to the scru- 
tiny of a man, whom they knew to be a steadfast advocate 
of the rights of the Indians. 

The Pequods, though disappointed in their attempts to 
secure the alliance of the Narragansets, resolved to main- 
tain the conflict single handed. They probably thought, 
that it was better policy to make one desperate effort to 
overpower the English, though aided by the Narragansets, 
than to wait for the gradual approach of that ruin, which 
they had the forecast to apprehend from the multiplication 
of the colonists. It was a bold though a hopeless effort. 
Their undisciplined bravery and simple weapons were un- 
equal to a contest with the military skill and the fire-arms 
of the English. 

The following letter from Mr. Williams to Governor 
Winthrop was written at some time between August, 1636, 
and May, 1637.t 

* Winthrop, vol. i. p. 199. Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 61. The last arti- 
cle of the treaty provided, that it should continue to the posterity of 
both parties. Our fathers thus treated with the Indians as inde- 
pendent tribes. They did not then dream of the doctrine, that the 
Indians are mere tenants of the soil, and are under the jurisdiction 
of the whites. 

t 3 His. Col. i. p. 159. 

12 



130 MEMOIR OF 

" New Providence, this 2d day of the weelc. 
'' Sir, 

"The latter end of the last week, I gave notice to our 
neighbor princes of your intentions and preparations 
against the common enemy, the Pequods. At my first 
coming to them, Canonicus (morosus aequo ac barbarus 
senex) was very sour, and accused the English and myself 
for sending the plague amongst them, and threatening to 
kill him especially. 

" Such tidings (it seems) were lately brought to his ears 
by some of his flatterers and our ill-willers. I discerned 
cause of bestirring myself, and staid the longer, and at 
last (through the mercy of the Most High) I not only 
sweetened his spirit, but possessed him, that the plague and 
other sicknesses were alone in the hand of the one God, 
who made him and us, who being displeased with the 
English for lying, stealing, idleness and uncleanness, (the 
natives' epidemical sins,) smote many thousands of us our- 
selves with general and late mortalities. 

" Miantinomo kept his barbarous court lately at my house, 
and with him I have far better dealing. He takes some 
pleasure to visit me, and sent me word of his coming over 
again some eight days hence. 

"They pass not a week without some skirmishes, though 
hitherto little loss on either side. They were glad of your 
preparations, and in much conference with themselves and 
others, (fishing, de industria, for instructions from them) 
I gathered these observations, which you may please (as 
cause may be) to consider and take notice of: 

"1. They conceive, that to do execution to purpose on 
the Pequods, will require not two or three days and away, 
but a riding by it and following of the work to and again 
the space of three weeks or a month ; that there be a fall- 
ing off and a retreat, as if you were departed, and a falling 
on again within three or four days, when they are returned 
again to their houses securely from their flight. 

" 2. That if any pinnaces come in ken, they presently 
prepare for flight, women and old men and children, to a 
swamp some three or four miles on the back of them, a 
marvellous great and secure swamp, which they called 
Ohomowauke, which signifies owl's nest, and by another 
name, Cappacommock, which signifies a refuge, or hiding 
place, as I conceive. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 131 

"3. That, therefore, Niantick (which is Miantinomo's 
place of rendezvous) be thought on for the riding and re- 
tiring to of vessel or vessels, which place is faithful to the 
Narragansets, and at present enmity with the Pequods. 

" 4. They also conceive it easy for the English, that the 
provisions and munition first arrive at Aquetneck, called 
by us Rhode-Island, at the Narraganset's mouth, and then 
a messenger may be despatched hither, and so to the Bay, 
for the soldiers to march up by land to the vessels, who 
otherwise might spend long time about the Cape, and fill 
more vessels than needs. 

" 5. That the assault would be in the night, when they 
are commonly more secure and at home, by which advan- 
tage the English, being armed, may enter the houses and 
do what execution they please. 

" 6. That before the assault be given, an ambush be laid 
behind them, between them and the swamp, to prevent 
their flight, &:.c. 

" 7. That to that purpose, such guides as shall be best 
liked of be taken along to direct, especially two Pequods, 
viz. Wequash and Wuttackquiackommin, valiant men, 
especially the latter, who have lived these three or four 
years with the Narragansets, and know every pass and pas- 
sage among them, who desire armor to enter their houses. 

*' 8. That it would be pleasing to all natives, that women 
and children be spared, &c. 

" 9. That if there be any more land travel to Connecti- 
cut, some course would also be taken with the Wunna- 
showatuckoogs, who are confederates with and a refuge to 
the Pequods. 

" Sir, if any thing be sent to the princes, I find that 
Canonicus would gladly accept of a box of eight or ten 
pounds of sugar, and indeed he told me he would thank 
Mr. Governor for a box full. 

" Sir, you may please to take notice of a rude view how 
the Pequods lie : 

[Here follows a rude map of the Pequod and Mohegan 
country.] 

'' Thus, with my best salutes to your worthy selves and 
loving friends with you, and daily cries to the Father of 
mercies for a merciful issue to all these enterprises, I rest, 
" Your worship's unfeignedly respective 

" ROGER WILLIAMS. 



132 MEMOIR O i' 

" For his much honored Mr. Governor, and Mr. Win- 
throp, Deputy Governor, of the Massachusetts, these." 

The Pequods now prosecuted the war with all the cruelty 
of savages. They murdered several individuals, whom they 
found at work in the fields, or surprised on the rivers ; and 
some of them they put to death with barbarous tortures* 
They attacked the fort at Saybrook, at the mouth of Con- 
necticut river. They thus spread alarm through the colo- 
nies. Massachusetts, Plymouth and Connecticut immedi- 
ately agreed to invade the Indian territory, with their joint 
forces, and attempt the entire destruction of the Pequods; 
Massachusetts accordingly sent 120 men, under General 
Stoughton, with Mr. Wilson, of Boston, as their chaplain, 
an indispensable attendant of a military expedition in those 
days. They marched by the way of Providence, and were 
hospitably entertained, at that place, by Mr. Williams. His 
own account of the transaction may be properly quoted : 
" When the English forces marched up to the Narraganset 
country, against the Pequods, I gladly entertained at my 
house, in Providence, the General Stoughton and his 
officers, and used my utmost care, that all his officers and 
soldiers should be well accommodated with us."* He ac- 
companied the troops to Narraganset, where, by his influ- 
ence, he established a mutual confidence between them 
and the Indians. He then returned to Providence, and 
acted through the war as a medium of intercourse between 
the government of Massachusetts, the army and the In- 
dians. 

Major Mason,, with seventy-seven men from Connecticut 
and Massachusetts, and several hundred Narraganset and 
other Indians,! attacked the Pequods, in May, 1637, at Mis- 
tick fort, near a river of that name, in the county of New- 
London, a few miles east of Fort Griswold. In this fort, 
five or six hundred Pequods, men, women and children, 
had taken refuge, and had fortified it, as well as their skill 

* Letter to Major Mason. 

t The principal force from Massachusetts, under General Stough- 
ton, did not arrive till some time afLer the action. The Plymouth 
troops did not march, though fifty men were got in readiness, but 
not till the war was nearly finished. The friendly Indians did very 
little service, except to intercept some fugitives. The battle was 
fought by the whites. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 133 

would permit, with palisadoes, which offered but a feeble 
defence, and presented no obstacle to musketry. They 
made a desperate resistance, but as they were armed only 
with bows, tomahawks and English hatchets, they killed 
and wounded but a few of the assailants, while the English 
troops poured in a destructive fire, and then rushed into 
the fort, sword in hand. The slaughter was dreadful, the 
warriors falling by the bullet and the sword, and the old 
men, women and children perishing in the flames. The 
action lasted an hour, and terminated in the burning of the 
fort, and the death of all its inmates, except a few pris- 
oners. 

A considerable number of the Pequods were soon after 
killed in a battle in a great swamp. The tribe was extin- 
guished. Sassacus, the Pequod sachem, fled to the Mo- 
hawks, by whom he was murdered. Such of the Pequods 
as were not killed, were either sent to Bermuda, and sold 
for slaves, or mingled with the Narragansets and other 
tribes.* Thus the brave and powerful Pequods disappear- 
ed forever, and such was the terror which this victory 
spread among the savages, that they refrained from open 
hostilities for nearly forty years. A day of thanksgiving 
was kept by all the churches in Massachusetts, in com- 
memoration of the victory, from which their soldiers had 
returned, without the loss of a man killed in battle. The 
account given by Winthrop is characteristic of those times : 
*' The captains and soldiers who had been in the late ser- 

* '' It was judged," says Dr. Holmes, (Annals, vol. i. p. 241) 'Hhat, 
during the summer, seven hundred Pequods were destroyed, among 
whom were thirteen sachems. About two hundred, besides women 
and children, survived the swamp fight. Of this number, the Eng- 
lish gave eighty to Miantinomo, and twenty to Ninigret, two sa- 
chems of Narraganset, and the other hundred to Uncas, sachem of 
the Mohegans, to be received and treated as their men. A number 
of the male children were sent to Bermuda. However just the oc- 
casion of this war, humanity demands a tear on the extinction of a 
valiant tribe, which preferred death to what it might naturally an- 
ticipate from the progress of English settlements— dependence, or 
extirpation. 

' Indulge, my native land ! indulge the tear. 

That steals, impassion'd, o'er a nation's doom ; 
To me each twig from Adam's stock, is dear. 
And sorrows fall upon an Indian's tomb.' " 

Dwighfs Greenfield Hill. 

12* 



134 Memoir OF 

vice were feasted, and after the sermon, the magistrates 
and elders accompanied them to the door of the house 
where they dined/' Miantinomo, the Narraganset sachem, 
visited Boston, in November, to negotiate with the govern- 
ment, and acknowledged that all the Pequod country and 
Block-Island belonged to Massachusetts, and promised that 
he would not meddle with it without their leave. 

We have seen the part which Mr. Williams took in this 
war, and may ascribe to him no small share in producing 
its favorable termination. Some of the leading men in 
Massachusetts felt, that he deserved some acknowledgment 
of gratitude for his services. He says, in his letter to Ma- 
jor Mason, that Governor Winthrop *' and some other of 
the council motioned, and it was debated, whether or no I 
had not merited, not only to be recalled from banishment, 
but also to be honored with some mark of favor. It is 
known who hindered, [alluding, it is supposed, to Mr. 
Dudley] who never promoted the liberty of other men's 
consciences." 

His principles, however, were not then viewed with more 
favor than at the time of his banishment ; and the fear of 
their contagious influence overcame the sentiment of grati- 
tude for his magnanimous conduct and invaluable services 
during the war. It was not himself, so much as his doc- 
trines, which his opponents disliked. To those doctrines 
they were conscientiously hostile ; and they were not the 
only men who have thought that they did God service, by 
stifling the generous emotions of the heart, in obedience to 
the stern dictates of a mistaken sense of duty. 

The following letter from Mr. Williams may be properly 
quoted here. It is supposed to have been written on the 
20th of August, 1637. It relates to the affairs of the In- 
dians, and shows that the division of the Pequod captives, 
and other causes, occasioned some distrust and irritation 
between the English and the Narragansets. Mr. Williams 
endeavored to preserve peace and foster friendship among 
all parties. 

" New Providence, 20th of the 6th. 
" Much honored Sir, 

" Yours by Yotaash (Miantinomo's brother) received. I 
accompanied him to the Narragansets, and having got Ca- 
nonicus and Miantinomo, with their council, tog-ether, T 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 133 

acquainted them faithfully with the contents of your letter, 
both grievances and threatenings ; and to demonstrate, I 
produced the copy of the league, (which Mr. Vane sent 
me) and with breaking of a straw in two or three places, I 
showed them what they had done. 

" In sum their answer was, that they thought they should 
prove themselves honest and faithful, when Mr. Governor 
understood their answers ; and that (although they would 
not contend with their friends,) yet they could relate many 
particulars, wherein the English had broken (since these 
wars) their promises, &.c. 

" First, then, concerning the Pequod squaWs, Canonicus 
answered, that he never saw any, but heard of some that 
came into these parts, and he bade carry them back to Mr. 
Governor; but since he never heard of them till I came, 
and now he would have the country searched for them. 
Miantinomo answered, that he never heard of but six, and 
four he saw which were brought to him, at which he was 
angry, and asked why they did not carry them to me, that 
I might convey them home again. Then he bid the na- 
tives that brought them to carry them to me, who, depart- 
ing, brought him word that the squaws were lame, and 
they could not travel. Whereupon, he sent me word that 
I should send for them. This I must acknowledge, that 
this message I received from him, and sent him word that 
we were but few here, and could not fetch them nor con- 
vey them, and therefore desired him to send men with 
them, and to seek out the rest. Then, saith he, we were 
busy ten or twelve days together, as indeed they were, in 
a strange kind of solemnity, wherein the sachems ate nothing 
but at night, and all the natives round about the country 
were feasted. In which time, saith he, I wished some to 
look to them, which, notwithstanding, at this time, they 
escaped ; and now he would employ men instantly to search 
all places for them, and within two or three days to convey 
them home. Besides, he professed that he desired them 
not, and was sorry the Governor should think he did. I 
objected, that he sent to beg one. He answered, that Sas- 
samun, being sent by the Governor with letters to Pequod, 
fell lame, and, lying at his house, told him of a squaw he 
saw, which was a sachem's daughter, who, while he lived, 
was his (Miantinomo's) great friend. He therefore de- 



136 MEMOIR OF 

sired, in kindness to his dead friend, to beg her, or redeem 
her. 

" Concerning his departure from the English, and leaving 
them without guides, he answered, first, that they had been 
faithful, many hundreds of them, (though they were solic- 
ited to the contrary ;) that they stuck to the English in life 
or death, without which they were persuaded that Uncas 
and the Mohegans had proved false, (as he fears they 
will yet) as also that they never had found a Pequod ; and 
therefore, saith he, sure there was some cause. I desired 
to know it. He replied in these words, Chenock eiuse 
wetompatimucks ? that is, did ever friends deal so with 
friends? I urging wherein, he told me this tale : that his 
brother, Yotaash, had seized upon Puttaquppuunch,Q,uame, 
and twenty Pequods, and threescore squaws ; they killed 
three and bound the rest, watching them all night, and 
sending for the English, delivered them to them in the 
morning. Miantinomo (who, according to promise, came 
by land with two hundred men, killing ten Pequods in 
their march,) was desirous to see the great sachem whom 
his brother had taken, being now in the English houses ; 
but, saith he, I was thrust at with a pike many times, that 
I durst not come near the door. I objected, he was not 
known. He and others affirmed he was, and asked if they 
should have dealt so with Mr. Governor. I still denied 
that he was known, &lc. Upon this, he saith, all my com- 
pany were disheartened, and they all, and Cutshamoquene, 
desired to be gone ; and yet, saith he, two of my men 
(Wagonckwhut and Maunamoh) were their guides to Se- 
squankit from the river's mouth. 

" Sir, I dare not stir coals, but I saw them too much 
disregarded by many, which their ignorance imputed to 
all, and thence came the misprision, and blessed be the 
Lord things were no worse. 

" I objected, they received Pequods and wampum with- 
out Mr. Governor's consent. Canonicus replied, that 
although he and Miantinomo had paid many hundred 
fathom of wampum to their soldiers, as Mr. Governor did, 
yet he had not received one yard of beads nor a Pequod. 
Nor, saith Miantinomo, did I, but one small present from 
four women of Long-Island, which were no Pequods, but 
of that isle, being afraid, desired to put themselves under 
my protection. 



It O G E R WILLIAMS. 1*37 

" By the next I shall add something more of conse- 
quence, and which must cause our loving friends of Con- 
necticut to be very watchful, as also, if you please, their 
grievances, which I have labored already to answer, to 
preserve the English name; but now end abruptly, with 
best salutes and earnest prayers for your peace with the 
God of peace and all men. So praying, I rest, 
" Your worship's unfeigned 

" ROGER WILLIAMS. 

*' All loving respects to Mrs. Winthrop and yours, as 
also to Mr. Deputy, Mr. Bellingham, theirs, and Mr. Wil- 
son, &LC. 

*' For his much honored Mr. Governcw, these." 



138 MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER XI. 



Settlement on Rhode-Island commenced — Mrs. Hutchinson — settle- 
ment at Pawtuxet. 

The little colony at Providence was rapidly increased by 
the arrival of persons from the other colonies and from 
Europe, attracted thither by the freedom which the con- 
science there enjoyed. So tenaciously was this principle 
held, that the town disfranchised one of its citizens, for 
refusing to allow his wife to attend meeting as often as she 
wished.* This act has been censured, as a deviation from 

* Backus, vol. i. p. 95. " None might have a voice in government 
in this new plantation, vv^ho would not allow this liberty. Hence, 
about this time, I found the following town act, viz. " It was agreed, 
that Joshua Verin, upon breach of covenant, for restraining Uberty 
of conscience, shall be withheld from liberty of voting, till he shall 
declare the contrary." Verin left the town, and his absence seems 
to have been considered as a forfeiture of his land, for in 1650, he 
wrote the following letter to the town, claiming his property. The 
town replied, that if he would come and prove his title, he should 
receive the land. 

" Gentlemen and countrymen of the town of Providence : 

" This is to certify you, that I look upon my purchase of the town 
of Providence to be my lawful right. In my travel, I have inquired, 
and do find it is recoverable according to law ; for my coming away 
could not disinherit me. Some of you cannot but recollect, that we 
six which came first should have the first convenience, as it was put in 
practice by our house lots, and 2d by the meadow in Wanasquatucket 
river, and then those that were admitted by us unto the purchase to 
have the next which were about ; but it is contrary to law, reason and 
equity, for to dispose of my part without my consent. Therefore 
deal not worse with me than we dealt with the Indians, for we made 
conscience of purchasing of it of them, and hazarded our lives. 
Therefore we need not, nor any one of us ought to be denied of our 
purchase. So hoping you will take it into serious consideration, and 
to give me reasonable satisfaction, I rest, 

" Yours in the way of right and equity, 

" JOSHUA VERIN. 

" From Salem, the 21st Nov. 1650. 

" This be delivered to the deputies of the town of Providence, to be 
presented to the whole town." 

Winthrop's account of this affair (vol. i. p. 262) under the date of 
December 13, 1638, is a good specimen of the manner in which 
that great and good man was biassed by his feelings, when he spoke 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 139 

their principles, because it inflicted a civil punishment on 
a man, for conduct which he might allege to have sprung 
from conscientious scruples. But this inconsistency, if it 
was such, was an error on the right side. The woman 
might have failed in duty to her husband, by an obstinate 
contempt of his just authority, and a disregard of his reason- 
able wishes. But the inhabitants of Providence were right 
in adhering to the great principle, that our duties to God 
are paramount to all human obligations ; and that the right 
to worship him, in the manner which we deem most ac- 
ceptable to him, is not, and cannot be, surrendered, even 
by the marriage covenant. 

A settlement was made, in 1637-8, at Portsmouth, on the 
north side of the island which gives name to the State. 
The settlers were, like Mr. Williams and his companions, 
exiles or emigrants from Massachusetts. The cause of 
their removal may be traced to the singular ferment which 
arose in Massachusetts, on account of Mrs. Hutchinson. 

of Rhode-Island. The account must have been founded on reports, 
perhaps on mere gossip : 

'' At Providence, also, the devil was not idle. For whereas, at 
their first coming thither. Mr. Williams and the rest did make an 
order, that no man shovxld be molested for his conscience, now men's 
wives, and children, and servants, claimed liberty hereby to go to 
all religious meetings, though never so often, or though private, upon 
the week days ; and because one Verin refused to let his wife go to 
Mr. Williams so oft as she was called for, they required to have him 
censured. But there stood up one Arnold, a witty man of their own 
company, and withstood it, telling them, that v»'hen he consented to 
that order, he never intended it should extend to the breach of any 
ordinance of God, such as the subjection of wives to their husbands, 
&c. and gave divers solid reasons against it. Then one Greene, 
(v\dio hath married the wife of one Beggerly, whose husband is 
living, and no divorce, &.c. but only, it was said, that he had lived 
in adultery and had confessed it.) he replied, that if they should re- 
strain their wives, &c. all the women in the country would cr}'^ out 
of them, &.C. Arnold answered him thus : Did you pretend to leave 
Massachusetts because you would not offend God to please men, 
and would you now break an ordinance and commandment of God, 
to please women ? Some were of opinion, that if Verin would not 
suffer his wife to have her liberty, the church should dispose her to 
some other man who would use her better. Arnold told them, it was 
not the woman's desire to go so oft from home, but only Mr. Wil- 
liams' and others. In conclusion, when they would have censured 
Verin, Arnold told them, that it was against their own order, for 
Verin did that he did out of conscience ; and their order was, that 
no man should be censured for his conscience." 



140 MEMOIR OF 

This lady, with her husband, came to Boston, from 
England, in 1636. She possessed talents, which she ap- 
pears to have felt no reluctance to display. She was treat- 
ed with great respect by Mr. Cotton, and by other distin- 
guished individual?, particularly by Governor Vane. It 
was the custom of the members of the church to meet ever^ 
week, to repeat Mr. Cotton's sermons, and converse on 
religious doctrines. Mrs. Hutchinson commenced a meet- 
ing of the females, in which she repeated the sermons, with 
her own comments. Her eloquence was admired, and her 
meetings were thronged. Her vanity was inflamed, and 
she proceeded to announce opinions and doctrines, which 
soon became the topic of c<)nversation, and the source of 
vehement contentions throughout the colony. Parties were 
formed, amongr the ministers as well as the people ; Mr. 
Cotton himself being inclined to the side of Mrs. Hutchin- 
son, while most of the ministers and magistrates opposed 
her. The opinions ascribed to her related to such points 
as the nature of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the 
person of the believer, and the connection between sancti- 
fication and justification. From these opinions others, still 
more heretical, were supposed to flow, and, as usually 
happens, the inferences which men chose to form were 
considered as substantial errors actually held by Mrs. 
Hutchinson.* 

The alarm spread through the colony. The ministers 
thronged to Boston, to confer with Mr. Cotton and others. 
Long discussions ensued, without eflfect, and at length it 
was resolved to try the virtue of a general synod. It was 
accordingly held at Newtown, (now Cambridge) on the 
30th of August, 1637, and was attended not only by all the 
ministers and messengers of the churches, but by the 
magistrates. Three weeks were spent in debates, during 
which the mild spirit of Winthrop often interposed to soften 

~ •• Every man and woman, who had brains enough to form some 
imperfect conception of them, inferred and maintained Borne other 
point, such as these : a man is justified before he beheves ; faith is 
no cause of justification; and il' faith be before justification, it is 
oaly pasare faith, an ercplv vessel, &-c and assxirance is by imme- 
diate rerelation only. The fear of God and love of our neighbor 
seeiDfed to be laid by, and out of the question." Hutchinson, vol. i. 
p. 541. 



ROGSR Wir.LrAMS^ 141 

the asf^rity of contFoversy. The synod collected, wiUi. 
great industry, all the erroneous opinions then to be found- 
in the country, amounting to eighty-two, and finished its 
sessicai,^ by condemning these errors, and pronouncing its^ 
judgment on cei^tain f>oints of church discipline.* 

The etfect of the synod was the usual one, of increasing- 
the pertiiiacity with which tlie different parties held their 
opinions. Mrs. Hutchinson continued her lectures, and 
nearly all the members of the Boston church became her 
converts. She forsoolv tlie public assemblies, and set up 
a meetiag in her own house. Sli« accused the greater 
part of the ministers in the country as preachers of error. 
The civil power naw interposed, to apply the remedy for 
heresy, which has often been used, when argument had 
failed. Mrs. Hutchinswi was summoned before the Gen- 
eral Court, aiid many af the ministers. She was tried, 
found guilty, and sentenced to be banished. The church 
excommunicated her,, though she is said to have recanted 
her errors. Rev. Mr. Wheelwright, her brother-in-law, 
who had publicly espoused her cause^ was likewise ban- 
ished. 

The Court proceeded to a more extraordinary measure. 
Nearly sixty citizens of Boston, and a number in other 
towns, were required to surrender their arms and ammuni- 
tion to a person appointed by the Court, under a penalty of 
ten pounds ; and were forbidden, under the same penalty, 
to buy or borrow any arms or ammunition until further 
orders. The pretence, as set forth in the act,t was a fear, 
that the principles which they had learned of Mrs. Hutch- 
inson and Mr. Wheelwright might impel them to disturb 
the peace of the community, as certain persons in Germany 
had done. Though anabaptism is not named, it is easy 
to perceive, that this dreadful phantom, which so haunted 
the imaginations of our ancestors, was, on this, as on other 

* One of these decisions of the synod will be approved by the 
good sense of Christians in this age. *• That though women might 
meet (some few together) to pray and edify one another, yet such a 
set assembly, (as was then in practice in Boston) where si.xty or 
more did meet every week, and one woman (in a prophetical way, 
by resolving questions of doctrine aiid expounding Scripture) took 
upon her the whole exercise, was agreed to be disorderly, and with- 
out rule." Winthrop. vol. i. p. '240. 

t Backus, vol. i. 8G. 

13 



142 MEMOIR OF 

occasions, made the apology for oppressive measures. That 
it was a mere pretext, in this case, we have the best reason 
to believe, for Winthrop* honestly attributes the act of 
disarming these men, to the part which most of them had 
taken in a remonstrance to the General Court against its 
measures in relation to Mr. Wheelwright. The act itself 
proves the same point, for it provides, that if any of them 
would acknowledge their guilt in signing the " seditious 
libel," they should be exempted from its operation. The 
General Court was as jealous of its prerogatives as King 
James I. ; and to prevent these individuals from expressing 
their disapprobation by acts more energetic than a remon- 
strance, the Court thought it prudent to deprive them of 
offensive weapons. By an act, passed at the same session, 
a severe punishment was decreed for those persons who 
should speak evil of the judges or magistrates. 

These transactions have been recited, not only from 
their connection with the settlement of Rhode-Island, 
but because they furnish ample illustrations of the multi- 
form mischiefs which ensue from an interference by the 
civil magistrate in the affairs of the church. Had Mrs. 
Hutchinson been permitted, without notice, to expound 
and prophecy as she pleased, it is probable that her zeal 
would have soon spent itself, if unsupplied v.ith fuel by 
her vanity. Or if she had been left to the salutary dis- 
cipline of the church, as she would now be, no serious 
effects would have followed. But the iiijudicious excite- 
ment among the clergy, and still more, the improper con- 
duct of the magistrates, gave importance to the affair, and 
produced a convulsion in the Commonwealth, which would 
have ruined a community less intelligent arid pious, and 
the perils of which may be inferred from the act of the 
General Court, disarming a portion of its citizens. The 
Court, having assumed the office of inquisitors into the 
religious opinions of men, was forced, by a regard to con- 
sistency, to prosecute its measures to the end, and punish 
the heretics by disfranchisement and expulsion from the 
Commonwealth. Thus were the affections of many of the 
inhabitants alienated from each other, and from the gov- 
ernment, and the colony was deprived of a large number of 
its citizens, 

* Vol. i. p. 247. 



U O G E R VV I L L 1 A M y. 143 

But God, whose high prerogative it is to educe good from 
evil, made this unhappy feud in Massachusetts the occasion 
of establishing a new settlement on Rhode-Island. Many 
of the individuals who had been disarmed, and others who 
were banished, removed from Massachusetts. Some of 
them went to Connecticut, others to New-Hampshire, and 
several to Providence. But a number of persons, among 
whom was John Clarke, a learned physician, agreed to 
migrate together, and requested him and some others to 
select a suitai)le place. They accordingly proceeded to 
New-Hampshire, in the autumn or winter of 1637, the 
preceding summer having been so warm as to induce them 
to seek a more northerly position. But the severity of the 
winter in New-Hampshire turned their thoughts towards a 
more genial clime. Mr. Clarke and his associates accord- 
ingly proceeded southward, with a design to settle on Long- 
Island, or on Delaware Bay. But at Providence, they were 
kindly received by Mr. Williams, who advised them to 
form a settlement at Sowams (now called Barrington, a 
few miles from Providence) or at Aquetneck,* (now called 
Rhode-Island.) But as they had resolved to remove beyond 
the limits both of Plymouth and of Massachusetts, Mr. 
Williams, Mr. Clarke, and two others went to Plymouth, to 
ascertain whether they claimed either of these places. 
They were treated with respect at Plymouth, and were 
informed, that Sowams was claimed by that colony, but 
that Aquetneck was out of their jurisdiction. 

They returned to Providence, and on the 7th of March, 
1637-8, the following instrument was drawn up, and signed 
by nineteen individuals, all but two of whom were named 
in the act to disarm certain citizens of Massachusetts : 

" We, whose names are underwritten, do swear, solemnly, 
in the presence of Jehovah, to incorporate ourselves into a 
body politic, and as he shall help us, will submit our per- 
sons, lives and estates unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King 
of Kings, and Lord of Lords, and to all those most perfect 

* This word is spelled by different writers, in various ways. The 
island was afterwards (in 1G44, according- to Caliender,) called the 
Isle of Rhodes, and by an easy declension, Rhode-Island. (Holmes, 
vol. i. p. 24G.) In a letter of Roger Williams.already quoted, written 
before May, 1G37, the na.ne Rock-Ul^nd is applied to it. The reason 
does not appear. A fancied resemblance to the Isle of Rhodes is 
supposed to have been the origin. 



144 THE MO 111 OT 

-and absolute laws of his, given us in his holy wopdof truth, 
to be guided and judged thereby. 

Thomas Savage, William Coddington^ 

William Dyer, John Clarke, 

William Freeborne, William Hutchinson, 

Philip Sherman, John Coggesha^ll, 

John Walker, William Aspinwall, 

Richard Carder, Samuel Wilbore, 

William Baulstone, John Porter, 

Edward Hutchinson, Sen. Edward Hutchinson, 3i\ 
Henry Bull, John Sanford." 

Randall Holden, 

By the friendly assistance of Mr. Williams, Aquetneck 
and other islands in the .Narraganset Bay, were purchased 
of the sachems, Canonicus and Miantinomo, on considera- 
tion of forty fathoms of white beads. The deed of cession 
was signed by the sacheras, March 24, 1637-8."' 

* This deed is as follows : (Backus, vol. i. pp. 180-13 
'• The 24th of the first mon'th, called March, in the year (so com- 
monly called) 1637-8, Memorandum, that we, Canonicus and Mian- 
tinomo, the two chief sachems of the Narra^anset, by virtue of our 
general command of this bay, as also the particular subjecting of the 
dead sachems of Aquetneck and Kitackamuckqut, themselves and 
lands unto us, have sold to Mr. Coddington and his friends united 
unto him, the great island of Aquetneck, lying hence eastward in 
this bay, as also the marsh or grass upon Canonicut, and the rest of 
the islands in this bay (excepting Chibachuwesa [Prudence] formerly 
sold to Mr. Winthrop, the now Governor of the Massachusetts, and 
Mr. Williams, of Providence) also the grass upon the rivers and 
bounds about Kitackamackq«t, and from thence to Paupusquatch, for 
the full payment of forty fathoms of white beads, to be equally divi- 
ded between us ; in witness whereof, we have here subscribed. Item, 
that by giving, by Miantinomo's hands, ten eoats and twenty hoes to 
the present inhabitants, they shall remove themsclvee from off the 
island before next winter. 

" Witness our hands, 
'^ The mark (t) of CANONICUS. 
'•The ma^k (1) df MIANTLNOMO. 
*' In presence of 
^- The mark (X) of Yotaash, 

" Roger Wii.liams, 
''Randall H«lden, 
■*• The mark (|) ot Assotemcjit, 
'*' The mark (|]) of Mihammoii, Canonicus his son. 

■'' Memorandum, that Ousamequin freely consents, that Mr. Wil- 
liam Coddington and his friends united unto him, shall make use of 
3kny grass or trees on the main land on .Pawakaeick side, and oilunj 



IIUGER VVrLLIAMS. 145 

The natives who resided at Aquetneck soon after agreed, 
on receiving ten coats and twenty hoes, to remove before 
the next winter.* 

On the beautiful island, the adventurers commenced 
their settlement, under the simple compact which we have 
quoted. The northern part of the island ivas first occu- 
pied, a V I called Portsmouth. The number of the colonists 
being increased during the summer, a portion of the in- 
habitants removed the next spring, to the southwestern part 
of the island, where they commenced the town of New- 
port. Both towns, however, were considered as belonging 
to the same colony. In imitation of the form of government 
which existed for a time among the Jews, the inhabitants 
chose Mr. Coddington to be their magistrate, with the title 
of Judge ; and a few months afterwards, they elected three 
elders,! to assist him. This form of government continued 
till March 12, 1640, when they chose Mr. Coddington, 
Governor ; Mr. Brenton, Deputy Governor ; and Messrs. 
Easton, Coggeshall, William Hutchinson, and John Porter, 
assistants ; Robert Jefferies, Treasurer, and William Dyer, 
Secretary. This form of government continued, till the 
charter was obtained. The fertility of the soil, and the 
pleasantness of the climate, soon attracted many people to 
the settlement, and the island in a few years became so 
populous, as to send out colonists to the adjacent shores. | 

To this settlement, Mr. Hutchinson, with his family, 

meiij to the said Mr. Coddington, and English, his friends united to 
him, having received of Mr. Coddington live fathoms of wampum, 
as gratuity for himself and the rest. 

^' The mark (X) of OUSAMEQUIN. 

"•Witness J j;^^«^^ WiLLiAy.s 
■ ( Randall Holden. 

^- Dated the Gth of the fifth month, ICSS." 

* Mr. CiUeiider says, (His. Dis. p. o2,) '• The English inhabited 
between two powerful nations, the Wampanoags to the north and 
east, who had formerly possessed some part of their grants, before 
they had surrendered it to the Narragansets , and though they freely 
owned the submission, yet it was thought best by Mr. Williams to 
make them easy by gratuities to the sachem, his counsellors and fol- 
lowers. On the other side, the Narragansets were very numerous, 
and the natives inhabiting any spot the English sat down upon, or 
improved, were all to be bought off to their content, and oftentimes 
were to be paid over and over again." 

t MessTrf. Nicholas Easton, John Coggeshall and William Brenton. 

t Holnies, vol. i. p. 24G. 

13* 



i'46 iNiEMoiR or 

removed from Massachusetts. There is no evitieftce tliat 
Mrs. Hutchinson occasioned any disturbance at Rhodes 
Island. Her husband was elected one of the assistants, in 
1640. He died in 1642, and his wife, for some reason not 
satisfactorily explained, removed to the nieighborhood of 
New- York, where she was killed by the Indians, the next year^ 
with all the members of her family, amounting to sixteen 
persons, except one daughter, who was carried into captivity. 

ft is proper to mention in this place, with special honor 
the important aid of Mr. Williams in feunding this settle^ 
ment. With that prompt humanity, which always distin- 
guished him, he used all his influence on behalf of this 
band of exiles ; and it was, without question, bis intimacy 
and fkvor with the sachems which procured the cession of 
Aquetneck. He himself asserted this feet, in a letter 
written in 1658 : 

** I have acknovi^edged (and hav-e and shall endeavor to 
maintain) the rights and properties of every inhabitant of 
Rhode-Island in peace ; yet since there is so much sound 
and noise of purchase and purchasers, I judge it not 
•unseasonable to deckre the rise and bottom of the planting 
of Rhode-Island in the fountain of it. It was not price 
nor money that could have purchased Rhode-Islands 
Rhode-Island was obtained by love ; by the love and favor 
which that honorable gentleman. Sir Henry Vane, and 
myself, had with that great sachem Miantinomo, about the 
league which 1 procured between the Massachusetts En- 
glish, &/C. and the Narragansets, in the Pequod war. It is 
true, I advised a gratuity to be presented to the sa-chem 
and the natives ; and because Mr. Coddington and the rest 
of my loving countrymen were to inhabit the place, and to 
be at the charge of the gratuities, I drew up a writing in 
Mr. Coddington's name, and in the names of such of my 
loving countrymen as came up with him, and put it into as 
sure a ferm as I could at that time (amongst the Indians) 
for the benefit and assurance of the present and future 
inhabitants of the island. This I mention, that as that 
truly noble Sir Henry Vane hath been so great an instru* 
ment in the hand of God for procuring of this island from 
the barbarians, as also for procuring and confirming of the 
charter, so it may by all due thankful acknowledgment be 
remembered and recorded of us and ours, which reap and 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 147 

enjoy (he sweet fruits of so great benefits, and such unheard 
of liberties amongst us." Backus, vol. i. p. 91. 

" In another manuscript, (says Mr. Benedict, vol. i. p, 
459) he tells us, " The Indians were very shy and jealous 
of selling the lands to any, and chose rather to make a 
grant of them to such as they affected ; but at the same 
time, expected such gratuities and rewairds as made an 
Indian gift oftentimes a very dear bargain." " And the 
colony in 1666," says Mr. Callender, " averred, that though 
the favor Mr. Williams had with Miantinomo was the great 
means af procuring the grants of the land, yet the purchase 
had been dearer than of any lands in New-England." 

Mr, Williams' conduct on this occasion was worthy of 
his character, and entitled him to more gratitude than he 
seems to have received from some of the objects of his 
good offices. 

About this time, a number of the inhabitants of Provi- 
dence, among whom was Mr. Benedict Arnold, removed to 
Pawtuxet, a place four miles south of Providence, and 
included within the territory ceded to Mr. Williams. 
These individuals were doubtless induced to fix their resi- 
dence there, by the luxuriant meadows on the banks of the 
river, which furnished pasture for their cattle. 



148 MEM'OIR OF 



CHAPTER XII. 



Condition of Providence — execution of three murderers of an In- 
dian — birth of Mr. Williams' eldest son. 

We have seen Mr. Williams, though burdened by the 
toils and privations of a new settlement, generously de- 
voting his time and property to rescue his countrymen from 
destruction by the Pequods ; and assisting to establish a 
nevi^ colony at Rhode-Island. His own settlement at 
Providence was, in the mean while, increasing. The 
measures adopted in Massachusetts, in relation to Mrs, 
Hutchinson and lier adherents, made Providence a wel- 
come place of refuge to some of the fugitives. The temper 
of Massachusetts towards the settlement is shown in an act 
of the General Court, March 12, 1637-8, virtually prohibit- 
ing any of the inhabitants of Providence from coming into 
Massachusetts.* 

This act operated with much severity, for the colonists 
were dependent on Boston for supplies from abroad. Mr. 
Williams complained, that he had suffered the loss of many 
thousand pounds, in his '* trading with English and na- 
tives, being debarred from Boston, the chief mart and port 
of New-England. "t The writer of the History of Provi- 

* •' While the General Court sat, there came a letter directed to 
the Court from John Greene, of Providence, who, not long before, 
had been imprisoned and fined for saying, that the magistrates had 
usurped upon the power of Christ in his church, and had persecuted 
Mr. Williams and another, whom they had banished for disturbing 
the peace, by divulging their opinions against the authority of the 
magistrates, &c. ; but upon his submission, &c. hi^ fine was re- 
mitted ; and now, by his letter, he retracted his former submission, 
and charged the Court as he had done before. Now, because the 
Court knew, that divers others of Providence were of the same ill- 
affection to the Court, and were, probably, suspected to be confede- 
rate in the same letter, the Court ordered, that if any of that planta- 
tion were found within our jurisdiction, he should be brought before 
one of the magistrates, and if he would not disclaim the charge in the 
said letter, he should be sent home, and charged to come no more 
into this jurisdiction, upon pain of imprisonment and further cen- 
sure." Wintlirop. vol. i. p. 25G. 

f Letter to Major Mason. 



fl a G E R W I L L I A M &'. 149 

dence attributes the want of written memorials of the first 
settlers to the scarcity of pap«r, observing, that " the 
first of their writings that are to be found, appear on small 
scraps of paper, wrote as thick ^ and crowded as full as 
possible." This scarcity of an article^ which could be 
procured from Europe only, would be a natural conse- 
quence of an exclusion from the only port nearer than 
New- York, which vessels from abroad then visited. But 
articles of still greater necessity could not be obtained in 
the colonies^ and the inconvenience, if not suffering, occa- 
sioned by such an exclusion, can scarcely be imagined in 
the present age. 

But no injuries to himself or his fellow colonists could 
provoke Mr. Williams to refuse his good offices with the 
Indians. About June, 1638, the following letter was writ- 
ten by him to Governor Winthrop :* 

''Sir, 

*' I perceive, by these your last thoughts^ that you have 
received many accusations and hard conceits of this poor 
native Miantinomo, wherein I see the vain and empty puff 
of all terrene promotions, his barbarous birth or greatness 
being much honored, confirmed and augmented (in his 
own conceit) by the solemnity of his league with the Eng- 
lish, and his more than ordinary entertainment, &lc. now 
all dashed in a moment in the frowns of such in whose 
friendship and love lay his chief advancement. 

" Sir, of the particulars, some concerning him only, 
some Canonicus and the rest of the sachems, some all the 
natives, some myself, 

*' For the sachems, I shall go over speedily, and acquaint 
them with particulars. At present, let me still find this 
favor in your eyes, as to obtain an hearing, for that your 
love hath never denied me, which way soever your judg- 
ment hath been (I hope, and I know you will one day see 
it,) and been carried. 

" Sir, let this barbarian be proud, and angry, and covet- 
ous, and filthy, hating and hateful, (as ourselves have been 
till kindness from heaven pitied us, &/C.) yet let me hum- 
bly beg belief, that for myself, I am not yet»turned Indian, 

" o His. Col. i. p. 1(3(3 



150 aiEaioiR of 

to believe all barbarians tell me, nor so basely presumptu- 
ous as to trouble the eyes and hands of such (and so 
honored and dear) with shadows and fables. I commonly 
guess shrewdly at what a native utters, and, to my remem- 
brance, never wrote particular, but either I know the bot- 
tom of it, or else I am bold to give a hint of my suspense. 

" Sir, therefore, in some things at present, (begging your 
wonted gentleness toward my folly) give me leave to show 
you how I clear myself from such a lightness. 

*' I wrote lately (for that you please to begin with) that 
some Pequods (and some of them actual murderers of the 
English, and that also after the fort was cut off,) were now 
in your hands. Not only love, but conscience forced me 
to send, and speedily, on purpose, by a native, mine own 
servant. I saw not, and spake not with Miantinomo, nor 
any from him. I write before the All-Seeing Eye. But 
thus it was. A Narraganset man (Awetipimo) coming 
from the Bay with cloth, turned in (as they use to do) to 
me for lodging. I questioned of Indian passages, 6lc. 
He tells me Uncas was come with near upon forty natives. 
I asked what present he brought. He told me that Cuts- 
hamoquene had four fathom and odd of him, and forty was 
for Mr. Governor. I asked him how many Pequods. He 
told me six. I asked him if they were known. He said 
Uncas denied that there were any Pequods, and said they 
were Mohegans all. I asked if himself knew any of them. 
He answered he did, and so did other Indians of Narra- 
ganset. I asked if the murderer of whom I wrote, Pama- 
tesick, were there. He answered he was, and (I further 
inquiring) he was confident it was he, for he knew him as 
well as me, &c. 

" All this news (by this providence) I knew before ever it 
came to Narraganset. Upon this I sent, indeed fearing 
guilt to my own soul, both against the Lord and my coun- 
trymen. But see a stranger hand of the Most and Only 
Wise. Two days after, Uncas passeth by within a mile of 
rae (though he should have been kindly welcome.) One 
of his company (Wequaumugs) having hurt his foot, and 
disabled from travel, turns in to me; whom lodging, I 
question, and find him by father a Narraganset, by mother 
a Mohegan, and so freely entertained by both. I further 
inquiring, he told me he went from Moliegan to the Bay 



ROGER WILLTAMS. !51 

with Uncas. He told me how he had presented forty 
fathom (to my remembrance) to Mr. Governor (four and 
upwards to Catshamoquene,) who would not receive them, 
but asked twice for Pequods. At last, at Newton, Mr- 
Governor received them, and was willing that the Pequods 
should live, such as were at Mohegan, subject to the En- 
glish sachems at Connecticut, to whom they should carry 
tribute, and such Pequods as were at Narraganset to Mr, 
Governor, and all the runaways at Mohegan to be sent 
back. I asked him how many Pequods were at Narra- 
ganset. He said but two, who were Miantinomo's captives,, 
and that at Niantick with Wequash Cook were about three 
score. I asked, why he said the Indians at Narraganset 
were to be the Governor's subjects. He said, because 
Niantick was sometimes so called, although there hath been 
of late no coming of Narraganset men thither. I asked 
him if he heard all this. He said that himself and the 
body of the company stayed about Cutshamoquene's. I 
asked how many Pequods were among them. He said six, 
I desired him to name them, which he did thus : Pame- 
tesick, Weeaugonhick, (another of those murderers) 
Makunnete, Kishkontuckqua, Sausawpona, Qussaumpow- 
an, which names I presently wrote down, and (pace vestra 
dixerim) I am as confident of the truth as that I breathe. 
Again, (not to be too bold in all the particulars at this 
time) what a gross and monstrous untruth is that concern- 
ing myself, which your love and wisdom to myself a little 
espy, and I hope see malice and falsehood, (far from the 
fear of God) whispering together ? I have long held it 
will-worship to doff and don to the Most High in worship ; 
and I wish also, that in civil worship, others were as far 
from such a vanity, though I hold it not utterly unlawful 
in some places. Yet surely, amongst the barbarians (the 
highest in the world,) I v/ould rather lose my head than so 
practise, because I judge it my duty to set them better 
copies, and should sin against my own persuasions and 
resolutions. 

" Sir, concerning the islands Prudence and (Patmos, if 
some had not hindered) Aquetneck, be pleased to under- 
stand your great mistake : neither of them were sold pro- 
perly, for a thousand fathom would not have bought either, 
by strangers. The truth is, not a penny was demanded 



152 MEMt^iR or 

for either, and what was paid was oisily gratuity, tlwugh I 
chose, for better assurance and form, to call it sale, 

" And, alas ! (though I cannot conceive you can aim at 
the sachems) they have ever conceived that myself and Mr. 
Coddington (whom they knew so many years a sachem at 
Boston) were far from being rejected by yourselves, as you 
please to write, for if the Lord had not hid it from their 
eyes, I am sure you had not been thus troubled by myself 
at present. Yet the earth is the Lord's and the fulness 
thereof His infinite wisdom and pity be pleased to help 
you all, and all that desire to fear his name and tremble at 
his word in this country, to remember that we are all 
rejected of our native soil, and more to mind the many 
strong bands, with which we are all tied, than any particu- 
lar distastes each against the other, and to remember that 
excellent precept, Prov, 25, If thine enemy hunger, feed 
him, &;.c. for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, 
and Jehovah shall reward thee; unto whose mercy and 
tender compassions I daily commend you, desirous to be 
more and ever, 

*' Your worship's unfeigned and faithful, 

"ROGER WILLIAMS. 

" Sir, mine own and wife's respective salutes to your dear 
companion and all yours; as also to Mr. Deputy, Mr. 
Bellingham, and other loving friends. 

" I am bold to enclose this paper, although the passages 
may not be new, yet they may refresh your memories in 
these English Scotch distractions, &lc. 

" For his much honored and beloved Mr. Governor of 
Massachusetts, these." 

In August, 1638, his aid was again solicited by Massa- 
chusetts. Winthrop says, under that date, *' Janemoh, the 
sachem of Niantick, had gone to Long-Island, and rifled 
some of those Indians which were tributaries to us. The 
sachems complained to our friends of Connecticut, who 
wrote us about it, and sent Captain Mason, with seven men, 
to require satisfaction. The Governor of the Massachu- 
setts wrote also to Mr. Williams, to treat with Miantinomo 
about satisfaction, or otherwise to bid them look for war. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 153 

Upon this Janemoh went to Connecticut, and made his 
peace, and gave full satisfaction for all injuries."* 

About this time, an event occurred, which deserves to be 
related, both on account of Mr. Williams' connection with 
it, and because it is in a high degree honorable to the 
justice and integrity of the colonists, in their transactions 
with the natives. 

Four young men, of Plymouth, who Vv'ere servants, 
having absconded from their masters, attacked an Indian, 
at Pawtucket, near Providence, but within the limits of 
Plymouth colony. After inflicting upon him a mortal 
wound, they robbed him of a quantity of wampum, and 
fled to Providence. Here they were received by Mr. AVil- 
liams, with his usual hospitality, he being then ignorant of 
their character and their crime, and supposing that they 
were, as they pretended, travellers to Connecticut. He 
furnished them with letters and a guide ; but after their 
departure, he was informed of the atrocious act which they 
had perpetrated. He immediately despatched messengers 
to apprehend them, and went himself, with two or three 
others, in search of the wounded Indian. They carried 
him to Providence, and endeavored to preserve his life ; 
but in vain. The murderers fled to Newport, where, in 
consequence of information from Mr. Williams, they were 
arrested. Mr. Coddington being absent, they were sent to 
Providence. Mr. Williams was at a loss to determine, 
whether they ought to be tried at Newport, where they 
were taken, or at Plymouth, to which they belonged. He 
accordingly wrote to Governor Winthrop, to ask his advice. 
The following letter, written about August, 1638, contains, 
among other things, an account of these transactions :t 

" Much honored Sir, 
" The bearer lodging with me, I am bold to write an 
hasty advertisement concerning late passages. For himself, 
it seems he was fearful to go farther than forty miles about 
us, especially considering that no natives are willing to 
accompany him to Pequod or Mohegan, being told by two 

* Winthrop. vol. i. p. 267. In the Journal, there are repeated 
allusions to information received from Mr. Williams, respecting the 
Indians, and services rendered by him. See vol. i pp. 225, 226; &c. 

t 3 His. Col. i. p. 170-3. 

14 



] 54 MEMOIR OF 

Pequods (the all of Miantinomo's captives which are not run 
from him) what he might expect, &c. 

'•' Sir, Capt. Mason and Thomas Stanton, landing at 
Narraganset, and at Miantinomo's denouncing war within 
six days against Janemoh, for they say that Miantinomo hath 
been fair in all the passages with them, Janemoh sent two 
messengers to myself, requesting counsel, I advised him to 
go over with beads and satisfy, &c. 

" He sent four Indians. By them Mr. Haynes writes me, 
that they confess fifteen fathom there received at Long- 
Island. Thereabout they confessed to me (four being taken 
of Pequods by force, and restored again,) as also that the 
islanders say fifty-one fathom, which sum he demanded, as 
also that the Niantick messengers laid down twenty-six 
fathom and a half, which was received in part, with declara- 
tion that Janemoh should within ten days bring the rest 
himself, or else they were resolved for war, &c. I have 
therefore sent once and again to Janemoh, to persuade him- 
self to venture, &c. Canonicus sent a principal man last 
niofht to me, in haste and secrecy, relating that Wequash 
had sent word that if Janemoh went over he should be killed, 
but I assure them the contrary, and persuade Canonicus to 
importune and hasten Janemoh within his time, ten days, 
withal hoping and writing back persuasions of better things 
to Mr. Haynes, proffering myself, (in case that Janemoh 
through fear or folly fail) to take a journey and negotiate 
their business, and save blood, whether the natives' or my 
countrymen's. 

" Sir, there hath been great hubbub in all these parts, 
as a general persuasion that the time was come of a 
general slaughter of natives, by reason of a murder com- 
mitted upon a native v/ithin twelve miles of us, four days 
since, by four desperate English. I presume particulars 
have scarce as yet been presented to your hand. The last 
5th day, toward evening, a native, passing through us, 
brought me word, that at Pawtucket, a river four miles from 
us toward the Bay, four Englishmen were almost famished. 
I sent instantly provisions, and strong water, with invita- 
tion, &LC. The messengers brought word, that they were 
one Arthur Peach, of Plymouth, an Irishman, John Barnes, 
his man, and two others come from Pascataquack, travel- 
ling to Connecticut ; that they had been lost five days, and 



II O G E R W I L L I A M S, 1 55 

iell into our path but six miles. Whereas they were im- 
])ortuned to come home, &c. they pleaded soreness in 
(ravelling, and therefore their desire to rest there. 

" The next morning they came to me by break of day, 
relating that the old man at Pawtucket had put them forth 
the last night, because that some Indians said, that they 
had hurt an Englishman, and therefore that they lay 
between us and Pawtucket. 

'* I was busy in writing letters and getting them a guide 
to Connecticut, and inquired no more, they having told me, 
that they came from Plymouth on the last of the week in 
the evening, and lay still in the woods the Lord's day, and 
then lost their way to Weymouth, from whence they lost 
their way again towards us, and came in again six miles off 
Pawtucket. 

" After they were gone, an old native comes to me and 
tells me, that the natives round about us were fled, relating 
that those four had slain a native, who had carried three 
beaver skins and beads for Canonicus' son, and came home 
with five fathom and three coats; that three natives which 
came after him found him groaning in the path ; that he 
told them that four Englishmen had slain him. They 
came to Pawtucket and inquired after the English, which 
when Arthur and his company heard, they got on hose and 
shoes and departed in the night. 

" I sent after them to Narraganset, and went myself with 
two or three more to the wounded in the woods. The 
natives at first were shy of us, conceiving a general slaugh- 
ter, but, (through the Lord's mercy) I assured them that 
Mr. Governor knew nothing, &c. and that I had sent to 
apprehend the men. So we found that he had been run 
through the leg and the belly with one thrust. We dressed 
him and got him to town next day, where Mr. James and 
Mr. Greene endeavored, all they could, his life ; but his 
wound in the belly, and blood lost, and fever following, cut 
his life's thread. 

" Before he died, he told me, that the four English had 
slain him, and that, (being faint and not able to speak) he 
had related the truth to the natives who first came to him, 
viz. that they, viz. the English, saw him in the Bay and 
his beads ; that sitting in the side of a swamp a little way 
^ut of the path (I went to see the place, fit for an evil 



15G MEMOIR OF 

purpose) Arthur called him to drink tobacco, who coming 
and taking the pipe of Arthur, Arthur run him through the 
leg into the belly, when, springing back, he, Arthur, made 
the second thrust, but missed him, and his weapon run into 
the ground ; that getting from them a little way into the 
swamp, they pursued him, till he fell down, when they 
missed him, and getting up again, when he heard them 
close by him, he run to and again in the swamp, till he fell 
down again, when they lost him quite ; afterwards, towards 
night, he came and lay in the path, that some passenger 
might help him as aforesaid. 

" Whereas they said, they wandered Plymouth way, 
Arthur knew the path, having gone it twice ; and besides 
Mr. Throckmorton met them about Naponset river in the 
path, who, riding roundly upon a sudden by them, was glad 
he had past them, suspecting them. They denied that 
they met Mr. Thockmorton. 

" The messenger that I sent to Narraganset, pursuing after 
them, returned the next day, declaring that they showed 
Miantinomo's letters to Aquetneck (which were mine to 
Connecticut) and so to Aquetneck they past, whither I sent 
information of them, and so they were taken. Their sud- 
den examination they sent me, a copy of which I am bold 
to send your worship enclosed. 

" The islanders (Mr. Coddington) being absent, resolved 
to send them to us, some thought, by us to Plymouth, from 
whence they came. Sir, I shall humbly crave your judg- 
ment, whether they ought not to be tried where they are 
taken. If they be sent any where, whether not to Ply- 
mouth. In case Plymouth refuse, and the islanders send 
them to us, what answers we may give, if others, unjustly 
shift them unto us. I know that every man, quatenus man, 
and son of Adam, is his brother's keeper or avenger ; but 
I desire to do bonum bene, ^c. 

" Thus, beseeching the God of heaven, most holy and 
only wise, to make the interpretation of his own holy 
meaning in all occurrences, to bring us all by these bloody 
passages to a higher price of the blood of the Son of God, 
yea of God, by which the chosen are redeemed, with all due 
respects to your dear self and dear companion, I cease. 
" Your worship's most unworthy, 

"ROGER WILLIAMS. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 157 

*' This native, Will, my servant, shall attend your 
worship for answer. 

" My due respect to Mr, Deputy, Mr. Bellinghain, &c." 

Governor Winthrop advised him to send the prisoners to 
Plymouth. He complied, and three of them (the fourth hav- 
ing effected his escape) were there tried for murder. They 
confessed the crime, and were hung at Plymouth, in the 
presence of Mr. Williams, and many of the natives. Two 
died penitents, especially Arthur Peach, an Irishman, " a 
young man (says Governor Winthrop) of good parentage 
and fair condition, and who had done very good service 
against the Pequods." 

The following letter of Mr. Williams belongs to this 
period. It was addressed to Governor Winthrop :* 
" Much honored Sir, 

" Through the mercy of the Most High, I am newly 
returned from a double journey to Connecticut and Ply- 
mouth. I shall presume on your wonted love and gentle- 
ness, to present you with a short relation of what issue it 
pleased the Lord to produce out of them, especially since 
your worship's name was in some way engaged in both. 

" I went up to Connecticut with Miantinomo, who had a 
guard of upwards of one hundred and fifty men, and many 
sachems, and his wife and children with him. By the way 
(lodging from his house three nights in the woods) we met 
divers Narraganset men complaining of robbery and vio- 
lence which they had sustained from the Pequods and 
Mohegans, in their travel from Connecticut ; as also 
some of the Wunnashowatuckoogs (subject to Canonicus) 
came to us and advertised, that two days before, about six 
hundred and sixty Pequods, Mohegans and their confeder- 
ates, had robbed them, and spoiled about twenty-three fields 
of corn, and rifled four Narraganset men amongst them ; 
and also that they lay in way and wait to stop Miantinomo's 
passage to Connecticut, and divers of them threatened to 
boil him in a kettle. 

"This tidings being many ways confirmed, my company, 
Mr. Scott, (a Suffolk man,) and Mr. Cope, advised our 
stop and return back ; unto which I also advised the 

* 3 His Col. i. 173-7 The letter was written about Sept. 1638. 
14* 



158 MEMOIR OF 

whole company, to prevent bloodshed, resolving to get up 
to Connecticut by water, hoping there to stop such courses. 
But Miantinomo and his council resolved, (being then 
about fifty miles, half way, on our journey,) that not a man 
should turn back, resolving rather all to die, keeping strict 
watch by night, and in dangerous places a guard by day 
about the sachems, Miantinomo and his wife, who kept the 
path, myself and company always first, and on either^side 
of the path forty or fifty men to prevent sudden surprisals. 
This was their Indian march. 

" But it pleased the Father of mercies, that (as we since 
heard) we came not by, till two days after the time given 
out by Miantinomo, (by reason of staying for me until the 
Lord's day was over) as also the Lord sent a rumor of great 
numbers of the English, in company with the Narragansets, 
so that we came safe to Connecticut. 

" Being arrived, Uncas had sent messengers that he was 
lame, and could not come. Mr. Haynes said it was a lame 
excuse, and sent earnestly for him, who at last came, 
and being charged by Mr. Haynes with the late outrages, 
one of his company said, they were but an hundred men. 
He said he was with them, but did not see all was done, 
and that they did but roast corn, &c. So there being 
affirmations and negations concerning the number of men 
and the spoil, not having eye-witnesses of our own, that fell, 
as also many other mutual complaints of rifling each other, 
which were heard at large to give vent and breathing to 
both parts. 

" At last we drew them to shake hands, Miantinomo and 
Uncas, and Miantinomo invited (twice earnestly) Uncas to 
sup and dine with him, he and all his company (his men 
having killed some venison ;) but he would not yield, 
although the magistrates persuaded him also to it. 

" In a private conference, Miantinomo, from Canonicus 
and himself, gave in the names of all the Pequod sachems 
and murderers of the English. The names of the sachems 
were acknowledged by Uncas, as also the places, which 
only I shall be bold to set down : 

" Nausipouck, Puttaquappuonckquame his son, now on 
Long-Island. 

*' Nanasquiouwut, Puttaquappuonckquame his brother, at 
Mohegan. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 159 

" Pappompogs, Sassacus his brother, at Mohegan. 

*' Mausaumpous, at Niantick. 

" Kithansh, at Mohegan. 

'' Attayakitch, at Pequod or Mohegan. 

" These, with the murderers, the magistrates desired to 
cut off, the rest to be divided, and to abolish their names. 
An inquisition was made, and it was affirmed from Can- 
onicus, that he had not one. Miantinomo gave in the 
names of ten or eleven, which were the remainder of near 
seventy, which at the first subjected themselves, of which I 
advertised your worship, but all again departed or never 
came to him ; so that two or three of these he had with 
him ; the rest were at Mohegan and Pequod. 

" Uncas was desired to give in the names of his. He an- 
swered, that he knew not their names. He said, there were 
forty on Long-Island ; and that Janemoh and three Niantick 
sachems had Pequods, and that he himself had but twenty. 
Thomas Stanton told him and the magistrates, that he dealt 
very falsely ; and it was affirmed by others, that he fetched 
thirty or forty from Long-Island at one time. Then he ac- 
knowledged, that he had thirty, but the names he could not 
give. It pleased the magistrates to request me to send to 
Niantick, that the names of their Pequods might be sent to 
Connecticut ; as also to give Uncas ten days to bring in the 
number and names of his Pequods and their runaways, Mr. 
Haynes threatening also (in case of failing) to fetch them. 

" Sir, at Plymouth, it pleased the Lord to force the pri- 
soners to confess, that they all complotted and intended 
murder ; and they were, three of them, (the fourth having 
escaped, by a pinnace, from Aquetneck,) executed in the 
presence of the natives who went with me. Our friends 
confessed, that they received much quickening from your 
own hand. O that they might also in a case more weighty, 
wherein they need much, viz. the standing to their present 
government and liberties, to which I find them weakly 
resolved. 

" They have requested me to inquire out a murder five 
years since committed upon a Plymouth man, (as they now 
hear) by two Narraganset Indians, between Plymouth and 
Sowams. I hope, (if true) the Lord will discover it. 

'' Sir, I understand there hath been some Englishman of 
late come over, who hath told much to Cutshamoquene's 



160 MEMOIR OF 

Indians (I think Auhaudin)of a great sachem in England, 
(using the King's name) to whom all the sachems in this 
land are and shall be nothing, and where his ships ere long 
shall land ; and this is much news at present amongst the 
natives. I hope to inquire out the man. 

" Mr. Vane hath also written to Mr. Coddington and 
others on the island of late, to remove from Boston, as 
speedily as they might, because some evil was ripening, &/C. 
The most holy and mighty One blast all mischievous buds 
and blossoms, and prepare us for tears in the valley of tears, 
help you and us to trample on the dunghill of this present 
world, and to set affections and cast anchor above these 
heavens and earth, which are reserved for burning. 

" Sir, I hear, that two malicious persons, (one I was bold 
to trouble your worship with not long since) Joshua Verin, 
and another yet with us, William Arnold, have most falsely 
and slanderously (as I hope it shall appear) complotted to- 
gether (even as Gardiner did against yourself) many odious 
accusations in writing. It may be, they may some way 
come to your loving hand. I presume the end is to render 
me odious both to the King's Majesty, as also to yourselves. 
I shall request humbly your wonted love and gentleness (if 
it comes to your worship's hand) to help me with the sight 
of it, and I am confident yourself shall be the judge of the 
notorious wickedness and malicious falsehoods contained 
therein, and that there hath not passed aught from me, either 
concerning the maintaining of our liberties in this land, or 
any difference with yourselves, which shall not manifest loy- 
alty's reverence, modesty and tender affection. 

" The Lord Jesus, the sun of righteously* shine brightly 
and eternally on you and yours, and all that seek him that 
was crucified. In him I desire ever to be, 
" Your worship's most unfeigned, 

"ROGER WILLIAMS. 

" AH respective salutations to kind Mrs. Winthrop, Mr. 
Deputy, Mr. Bellingham, and theirs." 

In September, 1638, Mr. Williams' eldest son was borr, 
to whom his father gave the name of Providence. He ii 

* righteousness ? 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 161 

said to have been the first English male child, who was born 
there. 

We may here appropriately mention, the establishment of 
Harvard College. The great and good men who presided 
over the councils of Massachusetts felt, that learning and 
religion are the firmest pillars of civil liberty. In their 
weakness, they resolved to establish a college. In Octo- 
ber, 1636, during the Pequod war, the General Court 
appropriated for the purpose, four hundred pounds, equal 
to the whole sum raised by taxation, in one year, in the 
whole colony, for the support of the civil government. Rev. 
John Harvard, who died September 14, 1638, left to the 
college nearly eight hundred pounds, being half of his 
property. The General Court gave to the college his 
honored name, and called that part of Newtown where it 
had been erected, Cambridge. 

During the year, 1638, the colony at New-Haven was 
commenced, by Theophilus Eaton, John Davenport, and 
others, who purchased the land of the Indians, and laid 
the foundation of the city of New-Haven. The colony 
bore the same name, until 1665, when it was united with 
that which had been commenced at Hartford, and assumed 
the common name of Connecticut. 

In May, of this year, an arbitrary order was issued in 
England, to prevent emigration to America. Eight ships, 
which were on the point of sailing for New-England, were 
stopped. By this order, Oliver Cromwell, Sir Arthur Haz- 
lerig, John 'Hampden, and others, were prevented from 
coming to America. The King had afterwards abundant 
reason to lament his interference to detain these nien, who 
so largely contributed to subvert his throne.* It is a mat- 
ter of curious speculation, what would have been the course 
and fortunes of Cromwell, if he had reached our shores. 
How different might have been the history of England, for 
the next fifty years. 

* " Nescia mens hominum fati sortisque futurjE. 
Turno tempus erit, magiio cum optaverit emptum 
Intactum Pallanta." Mneis, x. 501-4. 



162 MEMOIR OF 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Baptism of Mr. Williams — establishment of the First Baptist Church 
in Providence — Mr. Williams soon leaves the church. 

Having related the principal facts, which can now be 
ascertained, concerning the settlement of Providence and 
Newport, it is proper to say something of ecclesiastical af- 
fairs. We must lament, in vain, that so little is known 
on this subject. We have no account, from Mr. Williams 
or his friends, of the manner in which the public worship 
of God was maintained, and the first church formed at 
Providence. The notices which may be gleaned from 
writers, who, for various reasons, were not disposed to look 
on the new colony with a favorable eye, must, obviously, be 
received with caution. 

We might be sure, from the known character of Mr. 
Williams, and of his companions, that they would meet to- 
gether for the public worship of God. Mr. Williams was 
acknowledged, at Plymouth and Salem, to be an able min- 
ister, and he would, of course, preach to those who might 
choose to hear him, at Providence. We learn from Win- 
throp,* that he was accustomed to hold meetings, both on 
the Sabbaths, and on week days. It does not appear, that 
there was, at first, any organization into a distinct church ; 
though, perhaps, those who had been members of the church 
in Salem, regarded themselves as still a church, and Mr. 
Williams as their pastor.t They were, at first, few in 
number, and were obliged to provide dwellings and subsist- 
ence for themselves and their families. They were not 
able to erect a house of worship, and tradition states, that 
in pleasant weather they met in a grove. On other occa- 
sions, they probably convened, either at the house of Mr. 

* Vol. i. p. 283, already quoted. 

t Governor Hopkins thinks, that there was a church formed on 
Congregational principles, before Mr. Williams' baptism. — History of 
Providence, in 2 Mass. His. Col. ix. p. 19G. This is not probable, for 
nothing is said by the writers in Massachusetts, of such a church, 
and the members of the church in Salem, who removed to Provi- 
dence, were not excluded from that church, till after their baptism. 
Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 371. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 163 

Williams, or at some other private habitation ; and, un- 
doubtedly, enjoyed, in their humble assemblies, the presence 
of Him, who is nigh to all who fear Him, and who prefers 
*' above all temples, the upright heart and pure."* 

It should be remembered, that the colony was a refuge 
for all who pleased to reside there ; and that, as Winthrop 
states, " at their first coming, Mr. Williams and the rest did 
make an order, that no man should be molested for his con- 
science." The inhabitants were consequently free to wor- 
ship God as they thought proper. They were not all united 
in opinion on religious subjects. Mr. Williams may have 
judged it to be most conducive to the peace and welfare of 
his little colony, to erect, at first, no distinct church, but 
to gather the inhabitants into one assembly for worship ; 
until the number should have so increased, as to enable 
them to form separate churches, and maintain public wor- 
ship conformably to their own views. 

After the lapse of two or three years, the colony had in- 
creased, by the accession of emigrants from England, as 
well as from the other colonies. Some of these are said by 
Hubbard, (336) to have been inclined to the principles of the 
Baptists. By what means Mr. Williams' mind was drawn 
to a consideration of baptism, we do not know. He was 
accused, before his banishment, of preaching doctrines 
*' tending to anabaptistry ;t a charge which was meant to 
impute to him principles subversive of civil order, rather 
than heterodox notions concerning the rite of baptism. It 
does not appear, that he had then adopted any views on 
this point, opposed to the practice of the churches in Massa- 
chusetts ; for if he had then insisted on immersion, and re- 
jected the baptism of infants, these opinions would certainly 
have been placed prominently among the reasons for his 
banishment. 

That his principles tended to '' anabaptistry," using this 
word as referring to the principles now held by the Baptists, 
is doubtless true. His views of the distinction between the 
Mosaic institutions and the christian church ; his rever- 
ence for the supreme authority of Jesus Christ ; his appeals 

*The first church in Boston, several of whose members were 
wealthy, existed two years before they began to build a meetinp*- 
house. Winthrop, vol. i. p. 87. 

t Morton's Memorial, p. 151. 



164 MEMOIR OF 

to the Scriptures as the only rule of faith and practice, and 
to the New Testament as the statute book of the Christian 
church ; his assertion and defence of the independent right, 
and imperative obligation, of every individual to search the 
oracles of God, and follow their teachings, without dictation 
or restraint from other men ; his bold and uniform procla- 
mation of the unfettered liberty of conscience, in those con- 
cerns which pertain to the intercourse between God and 
the soul, will doubtless be acknowledged by the Baptists, 
to have had a strong tendency to lead Mr, Williams to adopt 
their distinctive views of the Christian ordinances. 

Nor will it be considered, by other men, as a very strange 
vagary of an unstable mind, that a clergyman, educated 
in the Church of England, should adopt the opinion, that 
immersion is the only scriptural baptism, when that church 
had taught him, in her offices, that baptism must be so ad- 
ministered, except in cases of weakness or disease. Nor 
ought Mr. Williams to be severely censured for denying 
that infants are proper subjects of this ordinance, when it 
is recollected, that the first President of Harvard Univer- 
sity, (Dunster,) held the same opinion ; and the second 
President (Chauncy) so far followed in the same course, as 
to insist, that baptism should be administered, to infants and 
adults, by immersion only.* Mr. Williams will, at least, be 
viewed as excusable, by those who agree with a learned 
Pedobaptist of our own times, that " it is a plain case, there is 
no express precept respecting infant baptism in our sacred 
writings."! If Mr. Williams could not find infant baptism 
in the Scriptures, his rejection of it was a natural result of 
his principles, and may candidly be ascribed to his single- 
hearted deference to the authority of the Bible ; though his 
reputation for ingenuity may suffer, because he was unable 
" to make out the proof in another way." 

We are not, therefore, reduced to the necessity of adopt- 
ing Governor Winthrop's account of Mr. Williams' change 
of opinion. That account attributes the blame to an 
artful woman, a sister of the great heresiarch of those 



* Peirce's History of Harvard University, pp. 10, 18. 

t Dr. Woods, on Infant Baptism, Lecture I. — He adds, " the proof, 
then, that infant baptism is a divine institution, must be made out 
in another way." 



11 O G E R WILLIAMS. 165 

times, Mrs. Hutchinson.* We may, not unreasonably, sup- 
pose, that Mr. Williams, on further study of the Scriptures, 
and finding that several of the colonists had embraced Bap- 
tist principles, was himself convinced, that he had not been 
baptized. He accordingly resolved to obey the Saviour's 
command, and unite in a church, with such persons as 
might be willing to join him* 

A difficulty now presented itself. They had been edu- 
cated in the Episcopal church, and were accustomed to 
regard the clergy with respect, as the only legal adminis- 
trators of the Christian ordinances. Mr. Williams himself 
seems to have strongly felt this difficulty ; and his scruples 
on this point, probably, had some effect on his subsequent 
conduct. He had not himself been immersed, and it seemed 
a reasonable conclusion, that he could not, with propriety, 
baptize his brethren, till he had received baptism. There 
was no other minister in New-England, who would have 
baptized him, if he had made an application, and his ban- 
ishment from Massachusetts had been suspended. 

The most obvious expedient, in their circumstances, was 
adopted. Mr. Ezekiel Hollimant was selected to baptize 
Mr. Williams, who then baptized the administrator and ten 
others.| This event occurred in March, 1638-9. Thus 
was founded the first Baptist church in America, and the 



* Winthrop, vol. i. p. 293. Under date of March, 1638-9, he says : 
"At Providence, things grew still worse ; for a sister of Mrs. Hutchin- 
son, the wife of one Scott, being infected with anabaptistry, and go- 
ing last year to live at Providence, Mr. Williams was taken (or rather 
emboldened) by her to make open profession thereof, and according- 
ly was re-baptized by one Holliman, a poor man, late of Salem. Then 
Mr. Williams re-baptized him and some ten more. They also denied 
the baptizing of infants, and would have no magistrates." 

t Governor Winthrop (vol. i. p. 293) calls Mr. Holliman " a poor 
man," which Hubbard, (338) in copying, alters to a " mean fellow." 
But Mr. Benedict says, that he was a man of" gifts and piety," and 
that he was chosen an assistant to Mr. Wilhams. Backus says, 
" after the year 1650, I find him more than once a Deputy from the 
town of Warwick in the General Court."— Vol. i. p. 106. 

t The first twelve members are named by Benedict, (vol. i. p. 473.) 
Roger Williams, Ezekiel Holliman, Wilham Arnold, William Harris, 
Stukely Westcott, John Green, Richard Waterman, Thomas James, 
Robert Cole, William Carpenter, Francis Weston, and Thomas 
Olney. 

15 



166 MEMOIR Of 

second, as it is stated, in the British empire.* The church 
was soon after increased by the addition of twelve other 
persons. 

The validity of this baptism of Mr. Williams and his 
companions having been disputed, it may be proper to ex- 
amine this point. 

The spirit of the Scriptures, if not their letter, assigns to 
the ministers of the Gospel the duty of administering the 
ordinances of the church. Expediency obviously requires 
an adherence to this general principle. But the language 
of the Bible is not so decisive on this point, as to make it 
certain, that a layman might not, in cases where a minister 
could not be obtained, administer the ordinances. It is 
known, that in the earliest ages of the church, while there 
was a general observance of the principle, that the adminis- 
tration of the ordinances belongs to ministers, laymen were 
occasionally permitted to baptize. Mosheim says : "At 
first, all who were engaged in propagating Christianity, ad- 
ministered this rite ; nor can it be called in question, that 
whoever persuaded any person to embrace Christianity, 
could baptize his own disciple. "f Tertullian says, " Lay- 

* Backus, vol. i. 106, note. " There had been many of them [Bap- 
tists] intermixed with other societies from their first coming out of 
Popery ; but their first distinct church in our nation was formed out 
of the Independent Church in London, whereof Mr. Henry Jacob was 
pastor, from 161G to 1624, when he went to Virginia, and Mr. John 
Lathrop was chosen in his room. But nine years after, several per- 
sons in the society, finding that the congregation kept not to their 
first principles of separation, and being also convinced, that baptism 
was not to be administered to infants, but such only as professed faith 
in Christ, desired and obtained liberty, and formed themselves into 
a distinct church, Sept. 12, 1633, having Mr. John Spisbury for their 
mmister."— Crosby, vol. i. pp. 148, 149. In the year 1C39, , another 
Baptist church was formed in London, but probably not so early as 
the church at Providence. 

t Mosheim, b. 1, c. 1, p. 2, ch. 4, s. 8. See Campbell's Lectures 
on Lcclesiastical History, lecture iv. for proof, that laymen, in the 
early tunes of the Christian era, often baptized. He quotes Hilarv, 
who, ni his Exposition of the Epistle to the Ephesians, 4 : 11, 12, 
says, '• Postquam omnibus locis ecclesiaj sunt constitute, et ofiicia 
ordinata ahter composita res est, quam cceperat; primum enim 
omnes docebant, et omnes baptizabant, quibuscunque diebus vel 
temponbus fuisset occasio." That is, when churches were every 
where constituted, and oflicial duties prescribed, things were other- 
wise regulated, than at first, when all taught, and all baptized, when- 
ever occasion required. ' 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 167 

men have power to baptize, which yet, for the sake of 
order, they ought only to use in cases of necessity."* Am- 
brose says : " That at the beginning, laymen were permitted 
to preach and baptize, in order to increase the number of 
Christians."f Augustine affirms, "that it is a very small 
fault, or none at all, for laymen to baptize, in cases of ur- 
gent necessity."! Jerome speaks of it as a thing certain, 
that " laymen may lawfully baptize, when there is urgent 
necessity for it."§ There were, it is true, at a very early 
period, erroneous views of the indispensable necessity of 
baptism to salvation, which led to various unauthorized 
practices. But the principle, that laymen might lawfully 
baptize, in certain exigencies, seems to have been early ad- 
mitted, and it was formally sanctioned by a decree of the 
Council of Eliberis.|j 

But the reason of the case is of more weight than the de- 
cisions of councils. It sometimes happens, that persons 
become Christians, without the direct labors of a minister. 
If, for example, by the agency of the Scriptures and tracts, 
which missionaries are now sending into the Chinese em- 
pire, a number of persons in a neighborhood should bo- 
come converts, would it not be their privilege and their 
duty, if they were sufficiently instructed respecting the nature 
of the church and of its ordinances, to appoint one of their 
number to baptize the rest, to form themselves into a church, 
and to partake of the Lord's Supper ? Must these believers 
wait, till a missionary could come to baptize them, and to 
organize a church ? The great ends for which the church 
and its ordinances were appointed, — the spiritual edification 
of believers, and the spread of truth, — would require that 
these Christians should enjoy them. If it were indispensa- 



■"Lib. de baptismo, cap. xvii. Laicis etiam jus est (baptizandi.) 
Sufficiat in necessitatibus utaris, sicubi aut loci, aut temporis, aut 
personas conditio compellit. 

f S. Ambrosias in Eph. iv. 

t S. Augustinus contra Padmenian, lib. ii. cap. xiii. 

§ Hieronymus, adv. Luciferianas, cap. v. — See Potter on Church 
Government, p. 231, &c. Phil^ ed. for other authorities. 

11 Concil, Elib. Can. xxxviii. — Peregre navigantes, aut si Ecclesia 
in proximo non fuerit, posse fidelem, qui lavacrum suum integ- 
rum habet, nee sit bigamus, baptizare in necessitate, ita ut, si super- 
yixerit, ad Episcopum suum perducat, ut per manus impositionera 
perfici possit. — Quoted by Potter, p. 232. 



168 MEMOIR OF 

ble, that the admmistrator be a mmister, there would, in 
such a case, be no insuperable difficulty. The duty of the 
converts to assemble, to pray, and to exhort each other, 
would be clear. Their voluntary agreement thus to meet, 
to maintain mutual watchfulness, and to enjoy the or- 
dinances of the Gospel, would constitute them a church. 
They might call one of their number, possessing, in their 
judgment, suitable gifts, to the office of the ministry, and this 
election by the church would be the only human sanction 
which such a minister would need, to authorize him to preach 
the Gospel, and to administer the ordinances.* This posi- 
tion cannot be denied, without resorting to the doctrine of a 
regular apostolical succession. If the church has no power 
to originate a ministry, by investing with the sacred office 
those to whom, in her judgment, the Saviour has given the 
inward vocation, the ministry might become extinct. Those 
who insist on an apostolical succession, are obliged to trace 
their ministry through the channel of the papal clergy. 
They are forced to admit, that the Pope is a true bishop, and 
the Catholic community a Christian church. Archbishop 
Laud confessed, that " it is through her that the bishops of the 
Church of England, who have the honor to be capable of 
deriving their calling from St. Peter, must deduce their suc- 
cession. "t If the race of English prelates had become ex- 
tinct, as might have happened, had Cromwell's life been pro- 
longed a few years, the Church of England would have been 
reduced to the embarrassing dilemma, of consecrating bish- 
ops by her own authority, and thus dissolving the charm of 
succession, or of sending an humble embassy to Rome, to 
crave from his Holiness the communication, anew, of the 
mysterious virtue. 

If, then, a company of believers in China might, in ac- 
cordance with the spirit of the New Testament, appoint an 
administrator of the ordinances, the little band of Baptists 
at Providence were fully authorized to do it.| No minister 



* Mr. Holliman, who baptized Mr. Williams, became a preacher. 

t Ncal, vol. iii. p. 233. 

t The excellent John Robinson, the father of the Plymouth colonj^-, 
had a controversy with the Rev. Mr. Bernard, an Episcopal minister. 
Mr. Robinson wrote a book, entitled '•' A Justification of Separation 
from the Church of England." — In this book, he uses the same ar- 
gument as that in the text: '* Zanchy. upon the fifth to the Ephe- 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 169 

could have been obtained, in America, to baptize Mr. Wil- 
liams. The case was one of obvious necessity, and the 
validity of the baptism cannot be denied, without rejecting 
the fundamental principle, on which dissenting churches 
rest, that all the ecclesiastical power on earth resides ul- 
timately in the church, and that she is authorized to adopt 
any measures, not repugnant to the Scriptures, which may 
be necessary for her preservation and prosperity. What- 
ever the New Testament has positively prescribed, must of 
course be strictly obeyed. 

In regard to those whom Mr. Williams baptized, there 
can be no dispute. He was a clergyman of the Church of 
England, and Pedobaptists must admit, that immersion, ad- 
ministered by him, was Christian baptism. Their own 
ministers not unfrequently administer the rite in this man- 
ner, and the persons thus baptized are received as regular 
members of their churches.* 



sians, treating of baptism, propounds a question of a Turk, coming to 
the knowledge of Christ and to faith by reading the New Testament, 
and withal teaching his family and converting it and others to Christ, 
and being in a country whence he cannot easily come to Christian 
countries, whether he may baptize them, whom he hath converted 
t-o Christ, he himself being unbaptized ? He answers, I doubt not of 
It, but that he may, and withal provide that he himself be baptized 
of one of the three converted by him. The reason he gives is, be- 
cause he is a minister of the word, extraordinarily stirred up by 
Christ ; and so as such a minister may, with the consent of that 
small church, appoint one of the communicants, and provide that he 
be baptized by him." Backus, vol. i. p. 106. 

*The question, which has been asked, with some emphasis, as if 
it vitally affected the Baptist churches in this country: '■' By whom 
teas Roger Williams baptized?'' has no practical importance. All 
whom he immersed were, as Pedobaptists must admit, baptized. The 
great family of Baptists in this country did not spring from the First 
Church in Providence. Many Baptist ministers and members came, 
at an early period, from Europe, and thus churches were formed in 
different parts of the country, which have since multiplied over the 
land. The first Baptist church formed in the present State of Mas- 
sachusetts, is the church at Swansea. Its origin is dated in 1663, 
when the kev. John Miles came from Wales, with a number of the 
members of a Baptist church, who brought with them its records. 
It was, in fact, an emigration of a church. Of the 400,000 Baptist 
communicants now in the United States, a small fraction only have 
had any connection, either immediate or remote, with the venerable 
church at Providence, though her members are numerous, and she has 
been honored as the mother of many ministers. The question, dis- 
cussed in the preceding pages, disturbed, for a while, the first English 
15* 



170 MEMOIR OF 

At what time, and under what circumstances, Mr. Wil- 
liams left the church, has been a vexed question among 
writers. Callender, (p. 56,) expresses a doubt, whether 
Mr. Williams ever belonged to the church, and adds : " The 
most ancient inhabitants now alive, some of them above 
eighty years old, and who personally knew Mr. Williams, 
and were well acquainted with many of the original settlers, 
never heard that Mr. Williams formed the Baptist church 
there, but always understood, that Mr. Brown, Mr. Wick- 
enden, Mr. Dexter, Mr. Olney, Mr. Tillinghast, &c. were 
the first founders of that church." But Mr. Callender was 
under a mistake, and, according to Mr. Backus,* he was 
afterwards convinced of his error. The records of the 
church, as quoted by Mr. Benedict (vol. i. p. 476,) assert, 
that " Mr. Williams held his pastoral office about four years, 
and then resigned the same to Mr. Brown and Mr. \Vick- 
enden, and went to England, to solicit the first charter." 
This statement, also, is incorrect. 

Winthrop (vol. i. p. 307,) says, under the date of June 
or July, 1639 : " At Providence, matters went on after the 
old manner. Mr. Williams and many of his company a few 
months since were in all haste re-baptized, and denied 
communion with all others ; and now he was come to ques- 
tion his second baptism, not being able to derive the au- 
thority of it from the apostles, otherwise than by the minis- 
ters of England, (whom he judged to be ill authority) so 
as he conceived God would raise up some apostolic power. 
Therefore he bent himself that way, expecting (as was sup- 
posed) to become an apostle ; and having a little before re- 
fused communion with all, save his own wife, now he would 

Baptists. They had no clerical administrator, who had himself, in 
their view, been baptized. Some of them went to Holland, and were 
baptized by Baptist ministers there. " But," says Crosby, (vol. i. p. 
103,) '' the greatest number of the English Baptists, and the more 
judicious, looked upon all this as needless trouble, and what pro- 
ceeded from the old Popish doctrine of right to administer sac- 
raments by ail uninterrupted succession, which neither the Church 
of Rome, nor the Church of England, much less the modern dis- 
senters, could prove to be with them. They affirmed, therefore, 
and practised accordingly, tnat after a general corruption of bap- 
tism, an unbaptized person might warrantably baptize, and so begin 
a reformation." These examples, however, cannot justify a departure 
from the usual practice of our churches at the present day, when the 
ministry is reopularlr established. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 171 

preach to and pray with all comers. Whereupon some of 
his followers left him and returned back from ^^^^ence they 
went." 

According to this paragraph, Mr. Williams left the church 
about three or four months after its formation. This fact 
is confirmed by a letter of Richard Scott, inserted in George 
Fox's " Firebrand Quenched." Scott says of Roger 
Williams, " I walked with him in the Baptist way, about 
three or four months, in which time he broke from the so- 
ciety, and declared at large the grounds and reason of it, 
that their baptism could not be right, because it was not 
administered by an apostle. After that, he set up a way of 
seeking with two or three that had dissented with him, by 
way of preaching and praying ; and there he continued a 
year or two, till two of the three left him."* 

Mr. Scott was at Providence, when the church was 
formed, and there can be no doubt, that he soon became a 
member of it, though he afterwards joined the Quakers. 
The " three or four months" which he mentions must, on 
this supposition, be estimated as commencing at, or near, 
the formation of the church, and,consequently Mr. Williams 
must have left it in June or July, 1639, as Winthrop states. 

Of his reasons for this step, we are not clearly informed. 
The motives assigned by those who disapproved his con- 
duct, are loosely stated, and must be received with caution. 
The principal reason, as stated by Winthrop, Scott, and 
others, was, that Mr. Williams doubted the validity of the 
baptism which he and his associates had received, because 
it was not " administered by an apostle," or because he 
could not •' derive the authority of it from the apostles, 
otherwise than by the ministers of England, whom he judged 
to be ill authority." 

Of Mr. Williams' real views at this time, we have no ex- 
planation by himself; but if we may judge from his writ- 
ings a few years later, he denied, that any ministry now 
exists, which is authorized to preach the Gospel to the im- 
penitent, or to administer the ordinances. He believed, 
that these functions belonged to the apostolic race of min- 
isters, which was interrupted and discontinued, when the 
reign of Antichrist commenced, and which will not, as he 
thought, be restored, till the witnesses shall have been slain, 



172 MEMOIR OP 

and raised again. (Rev. 11: 11.) In his " Bloody Te- 
net," prin^ in 1644, several passages occur, in vi^hich he 
intimates, that the true church and ministry are now lost. 
The following paragraph may be quoted, both as an illus- 
tration of his views and as a proof of his liberal charity : 
He speaks of " thousands and ten thousands, yea, the whole 
generation of the righteous, who, since the falling away 
(from the first primitive Christian state or worship) have 
and do err fundamentally concerning the true matter, con- 
stitution, gathering and governing of the Church; and yet 
far be it from any pious breast to imagine, that they are not 
saved, and that their souls are not bound up in the bundle 
of eternal life." — (p. 20.) He says, in his " Hireling Min- 
istry none of Christ's," published in 1652 : " In the poor 
small span of my life, I desired to have been a diligent and 
constant observer, and have been myself many ways en- 
gaged, in city, in country, in court, in schools, in universi- 
ties, in churches, in Old and New England, and yet cannot, 
in the holy presence of God, bring in the result of a satisfy- 
ing discovery, that either the begetting ministry of the 
apostles or messengers to the nations, or the feeding and 
nourishing ministry of pastors and teachers, according to 
the first institution of the Lord Jesus, are yet restored and 
extant," (p. 4.) 

The only ministry, which, in his opinion, now exists, is 
that of prophets, i. e. ministers, who explain religious truths, 
and bear witness against error. In a passage of the same 
work, he says : " Ever since the beast Antichrist rose, the 
Lord hath stirred up the ministry of prophecy, who must 
continue their witness and prophecy, until their witness be 
finished, and slaughters, probably near approaching, accom- 
plished." 

We shall have occasion to disclose his opinions more 
fully in a subsequent chapter. The passages which we 
have quoted were not printed till a few years after he left 
the church, but there can be no doubt, that they explain 
his conduct on that occasion. His mind, like the minds 
of many other good men, became blinded " by excess of 
light," while gazing at the glorious visions of the Apoca- 
lypse ; and he formed the conclusion, that in the disastrous 
antichristian apostacy, the true ministry and the whole ex- 
terior organization of the church went to ruin, from which, 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 173 

however, as he beheved, they shall be restored, and the 
Saviour's kingdom shall come on earth. 

We need not pause, now, to show, that his views were 
erroneous. We must deeply regret, that he formed them ; 
but we can have no doubt of his sincerity. A temperament 
like his impelled him to hasty decisions, but his love of truth 
held a supreme sway over his mind. No considerations 
could deter him from adopting, and carrying into instant 
practice, whatever he believed to be true. Nothing but 
clear conviction could induce him to relinquish what he 
considered as right. His principle of action on this subject 
is beautifully expressed in a passage of his Bloody Tenet : 
" Having bought truth dear, we must not sell it cheap, not 
the least grain of h, for the whole world ; no not for the 
saving of souls, though our own most precious, least of all 
for the bitter sweetening of a little vanishing pleasure." 

We may conclude, then, that he left the church, not be- 
cause he had any doubts respecting the nature of baptism ; 
nor because he had been baptized by a, layman ; but because 
he believed, that no man is now authorized to administer 
the ordinances, and that no true church can exist, till the 
apostolic ministry shall be restored. With these views, he 
could not conscientiously remain connected with any 
church, nor regard his baptism as valid. 

Winthrop states, that he expected, " as was supposed, to 
become an apostle." This supposition is not entitled to 
much weight. It is certain, however, that he believed tiie 
restoration of the church and its ministry to be not far dis- 
tant, and he might reasonably hope, should he live to wit- 
ness this glorious event, to be honored with a vocation to 
this high ministry. 

The statement of Winthrop, that " having a little before 
refused communion with all, save his oztm wife, now he 
would preach to and pray with all comers," deserves a pass- 
ing remark. The phrase, " a little before," apparently re- 
fers to the time of Mr. Williams' residence at Salem. But 
Morton, (p. 153) and Hubbard, who copies him, (p. 207) 
assert, that " he withdrew all private religious communion 
from any that would hold communion with the church there ; 
insomuch as he would not pray nor give thanks at meals 
with his own wife, nor any of his family, because they went 
to the church assemblies " Here Winthrop's statement 



174 MEMOIR OF 

respecting Mr. Williams' wife is directly opposed to that of 
Morton and Hubbard. It is probable, that they were all 
under a mistake. 

The disputed point, whether Mr. Williams was the first 
pastor of the church, or not, does not appear to present a 
material difficulty. He would, we may suppose, as a mat- 
ter of course, be the pastor of the church while he remained 
in connection with it. He was the only ordained minister 
at Providence, and though there may have been no formal 
election, we cannot reasonably doubt, that he was consid- 
ered as the pastor. Richard Scott accuses him, in his letter, 
of a disposition to manage every thing according to his own 
pleasure ; a charge, which, coming from an adversary, may 
imply no more than that Mr. Williams was the head of the 
church. When he left it, he ceased, of course, to be its 
pastor. He was succeeded by the Rev. Chad Brown, though 
not, as it appears, till after an interval of two years; for the 
records of the church assert, that he was not ordained till 
the year 1(342.* We may easily suppose, that as Mr. Wil- 
liams' connection with the church was very short, Mr. Brown 
was considered as the first pastor, even by his contempora- 
ries, and that this impression was transmitted to their descend- 
ants. It was not unnatural, moreover, for the church to 
be willing to recognise Mr. Brown as the first pastor, rather 
than a man who soon left them, and who refused to ac- 
knowledge them, or any other body of men, to be a true 
church. It is possible, that other causes had some infiu- 
enca i.i the case. It is certain, however, that Mr. Brown 
has been generally believed to have been the first pastor of 
the church.f He was, unquestionably, the first regular and 

* Benedict, vol. i. p. 477. 

t John Rowland, Esq., in a letter to the author, says : '• The col- 
lege was built in 1770. On the question among the founders of it, 
on what lot to place the building, they decided on the present site of 
the old college, because it was the home lot of Chad Brown, the first 
minister of the Baptist church. Other land could have been obtained, 
but the reason given prevailed in fixing the site. Had the impres- 
sion been prevalent, that Roger Williams was the first minister or 
principal founder of the society, his home lot could have been pur- 
chased, which was a situation fully as eligible for the purpose. If 
any doubts rested in the minds of the gentlemen at that time, as to 
the validity of the claim of Chad Brown to this preference, perhaps 
the circumstance of Mr. Williams' deserting the order, and protesting 
against it, might have produced the determination in favor of Brown." 



R O G E R VV I L I- i A M S. 1 75 

permanent pastor, and may be regarded as one of the chief 
founders. It is not probable that he contended for the 
honor while he lived, and we may be sure that there was 
no strife, on this point, between him and Roger Williams, 
who speaks of him, in a letter written in 1677, as " a wise 
and godly soulj now with God," 

We have thus stated the facts, concerning Mr. Williams' 
conduct, so far as we have been able to ascertain them. 
We see that he acted from erroneous views, in leaving the 
church, and we lament that he was thus misled into a course 
injurious to religion and to his own spiritual welfare. But 
we see nothing which impeaches his religious character ; 
and his future life furnished abundant evidence of his piety 
towards God, and of his love to men. He adopted no errors, 
except his views respecting the ministry and the organiza- 
tion of the church. The great truths of the Gospel he 
steadfastly believed. His life exhibited their efficacy, and 
his heart felt their consoling power. 

The church continued in existence, after Mr. Williams 
left it. The statement of Richard Scott, that " lie broke 
from the society,^' implies, that the society itself or church 
remained. The Rev. Chad Brown became its pastor, and 
a succession of good men have continued to labor for the 
Lord, in that church, till the present day. The church has 
experienced some of the usual vicissitudes to which all 
things on earth are liable ; but it has never ceased to exist, 
and for the most part it has enjoyed great prosperity. 

No meeting-house was built till about 1700, when the 
Rev. Pardon Tillinghast, the pastor, erected a house at his 
own expense.* This long delay to build a meeting-house 
may be, in part, explained, by the poverty of the inhab- 
itants, and by the diversity of religious opinions which pre- 
vailed among them. But we can scarcely acquit the 
church of some deficiency in zeal and liberality. We 



* This house was built on the west side of North Main street, near 
its junction with Smith street, and a short distance north of Roger 
Wilhams' spring. It was probably a small and rather rude building. 
Tradition states, that it was ^' in the shape of a hay cap, with a fire- 
place in the middle, the smoke escaping from a hole in the roof." It 
was taken down, and a larger building erected in 1718. In 1774-5, 
the spacious and elegant house now occupied by the First Baptist 
Chur<*h, was erected. 



176 MEMOIR OF 

must presume, however, that they had a stated place of 
worship. Their numbers were, at this period, small, and 
they had, perhaps, sufficient humility to be content with 
very primitive accommodations. To Him whom they wor- 
shipped, the sincere offerings of pious hearts were accept- 
able , however humble the place from which they as- 
cended. 

Of the religious doctrines of this church, Mr. Benedict 
(vol. i. p. 486) says : " It was first formed on the Particu- 
lar or Calvinistic plan. In process of time, they became 
what our English brethren would call General Baptists, 
and so continued for the most part more than a hundred 
years. From the commencement of Dr. Manning's minis- 
try, they have been verging back to their first principles, 
and now very little of the Arminian leaven is found among 
them." 

These facts show, that Mr. Cotton and his grandson, 
Cotton Mather, were mistaken, when they affirmed of the 
church at Providence, that they " broke forth into ana- 
baptism, and then into antibaptism and familism, and now 
finally into no church at all." * Perhaps Mr. Cotton would 
not acknowledge, that the congregation of Baptists at Prov- 
idence deserved the name of a church. Mr. Williams and 
his wife, with several others of the members, were excom- 
municated from the church at Salem, of which they were 
retained as members till they were baptized. t A Baptist 



" Magnalia, b. vii. sec. 7. Gov. Hopkins, (a member of the Soci- 
ety of Friends) says, in his history of Providence, written in 1765, 
" This church hath, from its beginning, kept itself in repute, and 
maintained its discipline, so as to avoid scandal or schism, to this 
day. It hath always been, and still is, a numerous congregation, 
and in which" I have with pleasure observed, very lately, sundry de- 
scendants from each of the founders of the colony, except Holliman." 
2 His. Col. ix. 197. 

t The letter, announcing their exclusion, to the church at Dor- 
chester, may properly be quoted here, as an illustration of the cus- 
toms of those times : 

'' Salem, 1st 5th mo. 39. 
" Reverend and dearly beloved in the Lord, 

" We thought it our bounden duty to acquaint you with the names 
df such persons as have had the great censure passed upon them in 
this our church, with the reasons thereof, beseeching you in the 
Lord, not only to read their names in public to yours, but also to 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 177 

church, thus constituted, could not be viewed with much 
favor by Mr. Cotton and his friends. A church, which 
was formed this year at Newport, though Congrega- 
tional in form, and orthodox, it is presumed, in its doc- 
trines, is mentioned, in a tone of censure, by Winthrop, 
and after him, by Hubbard, (339) as having been gathered 
in a " very disordered way, for they took some excommu- 
nicated persons, and others who were members of the 
church of Boston, and not dismissed." * The leaders, 
both in church and state, in Massachusetts, were not then 
in a mood to be pleased with any thing which occurred in 
Rhode-Island. It would have been well if this feeling had 
expired with the first age. But local prejudice is almost 
as durable as the natural features of a country. Boiotia 
incurred, among the Greeks, a contempt, which the fame 



give us the like notice of any dealt v/ith in like manner by you, that 
so we may walk towards them accordingly; for some of us, here, 
have had communion ignorantly with some of other churches. 2 
Thess. iii. 14. We can do no less than have such noted as disobey 
the truth. 

"Roger Williams and his wife, John Throgmorton and his 
wife, TrioMAs Olney and his wife, Stukelv Westcott and his 
wife, Mary Holliman, Widow Reeves. 

•• These wliolly refused to hear the church, denying it, and all the 
churches m the Bay, to be true churches, and (except two) are all 
re-baptizcd. 

" John Elford, for obstinacy, after divers sins he stood guilty of, 
and^ proved by witness. William James, for pride, and divers 
other evils, in which he remained obstinate. 'John Tabby, for 
much pride, and unnataralness to his wife, who was lately exe- 
cuted for murdering her child. William Walcot, for refusing to 
bring his children to the ordinance, neglecting willingly family du- 
ties, &c. 

'' Thus, wishing the continued enjoyment of both the staves, 
beauty and bands, and that your souls may flourish as watered gar- 
dens, rest, 

" Yours in the Lord Jesus, 

" HUGH PETERS, 
'' By the Church's order, and in their name. 

" For the Church of Christ in Dorchester." 

* Winthrop, vol. i p. 297. Mr. Savage remarks, in a note : '' Those 
members of Boston church, who had been driven by intolerance 
to the new region, if they gathered a church at all, must do it in a 
disordered way, for they might well apprehend, that an application 
for dismission would be rejected, and perhaps punished by excom- 
munication." 

16 



178 MEMOIR OP 

of Pindar, Hesiod and Epaminondas could not soften.* 
Nazareth seems to have acquired a similar distinction 
among the Jews.t Rhode-Island may regret, yet cannot 
greatly wonder, that her sisters have sometimes remember- 
ed the circumstances of her origin, better than the purity 
of her principles and the steadiness of her patriotism. 
Many, since Mr. Cotton, have been inclined to doubt, 
whether there was any true religion in Rhode-Island, and 
to believe, with Winthrop, that there was no good govern- 
ment. But let her not be moved. Time is brightening 
the fame of her founder, and the reflected lustre will attract 
the eyes of men to a fairer contemplation of her char- 
acter. 

* Horace (Ep. lib. ii. Ep. i. 244) has a pungent sarcasm, ending 
thus : 

^- Boeotum in crasso jurares aera natuni." 
t John, i. 46. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 179 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Affairs of the Indians — birth of Mr. Vv^illiams' fourth child — dis- 
putes at Providence about boundaries — Committee of Arbitration — 
account of Samuel Gorton. 

Little is known of transactions, during two or three 
subsequent years, which can shed light on the conduct or 
character of Mr. Williams. Winthrop* mentions one cir- 
cumstance, that shows the confidence which the Indians re- 
posed in the founder of Rhode-Island, and the invincible 
opposition to him that was maintained in Massachusetts. 
Rumors were circulated, that the Indians were again 
forming plots against the colonists ; that Miantinomo, the 
Narraganset sachem, had sent a large present of wampum 
to the Mohawks, inviting them to an alliance against the 
English, and that the Mohawks had complied with the in- 
vitation. The government of Massachusetts took the pre- 
caution to strengthen the military defences of the towns, 
and to send an officer, with three men and an interpreter, 
to Miantinomo, to ascertain his real dispositions. He de- 
nied all hostile intentions against the colonists, and, says 
Winthrop, " promised to come to Boston (as he was desired) 
if Mr. Williams might come with him, (but that we had 
denied.") 

It is pleasing to observe the readiness of this savage 
chief to visit those who evidently distrusted him, provided 
that Mr. Williams might accompany him, in whose knowl- 
edge of his language, and firm friendship, he felt a confi- 
dence proportioned to the suspicions which savages feel 
towards all whom they have not thoroughly tried. And it 
is remarkable, that the rulers of Massachusetts would not 
relax the sentence of banishment, even for the advantage 
of a personal interview with the powerful sachem. 

Mr. Williams was doubtless employed at Providence, in 
labors for the welfare of the colony, and for the subsist- 
ence of his family. He possessed no property, and was 



Vol. ii. p. 8. 



180 MEMOIR OF 

obliged to support his wife and children by his personal 
labor. We have already seen, that, at his first coming, he 
planted his field, What cheer, with his own hands. He en- 
gaged, also, in traffic with the natives, and must have spent 
much time in travelling among them. The knowledge of 
their language, which he displayed in his Key, published a 
iew years afterwards, could have been acquired only by a 
familiar and frequent intercourse with them, in their own 
liabitations. He assures us, in his preface, that, " of later 
times, (out of desire to attain their language,) I have run 
through varieties of intercourses with them, day and night, 
summer and winter, by land and sea. Many solemn dis- 
courses I have had with all sorts of nations of them, from 
one end of the country to another.* 

His fourth child, Marcy, was born on the 15th of July, 
1640. 

The tranquillity of the town of Providence was early 
disturbed, by disputes respecting the boundaries of lands. 
The town was divided into two settlements, the original 
one at Moshassuck, and that on the Pawtuxet river. These 
two communities were much agitated, at various times, by 
dissensions concerning their respective limits. The loose 
phraseology of the memorandum attached to the deed of 
the sachems, " up the streams of Pawtucket and Pawtux- 
et, without limits, we might have for our use of cattle," 
was construed, by some, as a cession of the land up to the 
sources of the streams ; while Roger Williams, more rea- 
sonably, insisted, that the Indians merely meant to allow 
the cattle to feed occasionally on the banks of the rivers. 
Of this dispute we shall see more hereafter. It seems to 
have commenced very early, and to have seriously disturb- 
ed the peace of the town. It became evident that a more 
energetic government was necessary. A committee was 
appointed by the town, consisting of Robert Coles, Chad 
Brown, William Harris, and John Warner, who were au- 
thorized to decide, by arbitration, the existing disputes. 
Their report is dated " Providence, the 27th of the 5th 
month, in the year (so called) 1640. "t It settles the 
boundaries between the Pawtuxet purchasers and the other 



* Williams' Key, p. 22. Providence ed. f See Appandix D 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 181 

inhabitants of Providence. It proposes tliat five men be 
chosen, to meet once a month, to dispose of lands, with a 
right of appeal to the town. It further recommends, that 
disputes be settled, in future, by arbitration, according to 
certain rules which it prescribes. It provides for the 
choice of a town clerk, and for a general town meeting for 
business, to be called by the clerk, every three months. 

This report is highly characteristic of the times, and of 
the community. One of its prominent articles is in these 
words : " We agree, as formerly hath been the liberties of 
the town, so still, to hold forth liberty of conscience." 
This fundamental principle was recognised, and an- 
nounced, on all occasions. 

The democratic spirit appears in the provision, that the 
*' five disposers" should present their accounts every quar- 
ter, and a new choice be made. 

No form of government could be more simple than this. 
Mr. Callender says, (p. 43) in allusion to this period, that 
the inhabitants of Providence "did, to the number of near 
forty persons, combine in a form of civil government, ac- 
cording to a model drawn up by some of themselves, as 
most suitable to promote peace and order in their present 
circumstances, which, however, left them in a very feeble 
condition." 

The government on Rhode-Island was more regularly 
organized the same year, as we have already stated. An 
act, which was passed on the 16th of March, 1641, says : 
"It was ordered, and unanimously agreed upon, that the 
government which this body politic doth attend unto in 
this island and the jurisdiction thereof, in favor of our 
Prince, is a Democracy, or popular government, that is to 
say, it is in the power of the freemen, orderly assembled, 
or major part of them, to make or constitute just laws, by 
which they will be regulated, and to depute from among 
themselves such ministers as shall see them faithfully exe- 
cuted between man and man." 

The genuine Rhode-Island doctrine is recognised in the 
following act : " It was further ordered, by the authority 
of this present Court, that none be accounted a delinquent 
for doctrine, provided it be not directly repugnant to the 
government or laws established." And on the 17th of 
16* 



182 MEMOIR OF 

September following, 1641, they passed this act: "It is 
ordered, that that law of the last Court, made concerning 
liberty of conscience in point of doctrine, be perpetu- 
ated."* 

It thus appears, that the settlements at Providence, and 
on Rhode-Island, though, at that time, having no political 
connection, were founded on the same principles. Mr. 
Williams continued his friendly offices Avith the Indians, on 
behalf of the colony on Rhode-Island. On the 19th of 
September, 1642, he was requested " to consult and agree 
with Miantinomo, for the destruction of the wolves that are 
now upon the island." 

The history of Samuel Gorton is a prominent event 
among the occurrences of this period. We cannot enter 
into a minute detail of his conduct, his opinions, and his 
sufferings; but a brief account of him is required, by his 
connection with Mr. Williams. 

Mr. Gorton was born in London, and came to Boston in 
1636. Here, his religious opinions and conduct occasion- 
ed, as we are told, much disturbance, and he removed to 
Plymouth, in 1637. He there engaged in a controversy 
with Mr. Smith, the pastor, who appealed to the civil 
power. Gorton was summoned before a court in Plymouth, 
at which he maintained his opinions with firmness, and, as 
the court thought, with insolence. He was amerced in a 
large fine, and banished, after having suffered, according 
to some writers, f corporal punishment. He removed to 
Newport, on Rhode-Island, in June, 1638. There he re- 
mained for a year or two; but he gave offence to the gov- 
ernment, and, as some authors assert,^ he was imprison- 
ed, whipped, and banished from the island, probably in the 



* See R. I. State Papers, 2 Mass. His. Col. viii. p. 78. 

t Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 113. Allen's Bio. Die. article Gorton. 

+ Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 113. Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 59. Lecliford, 
an author quoted by Mr. Savage, in a note, says : " There (Newport) 
lately they whipped Mr. Gorton, a grave man,- for denying their 
power, and abusing some of their magistrates with uncivil terms, 
the Governor, Master Coddington, .saying in Court, You that are 
for the King, lay hold on Gorton, and he, again, on the other side, 
called forth. All you that are for the King, lay hold on Coddington ; 
whereujion Gorton was banished the island 3 so, with his wife, he 
went to Providence. Tliey began about a small trespass of swine. 



R O G E R W I L L I A M S. ] 83 

course of the year 1641. These transactions are not 
vouched by very satisfactory evidence ; and we know not 
admitting that they occurred, to whom the blame belongs, 
or in what proportion it must be shared by Mr. Gorton and 
his judges. 

From Newport, he proceeded to Providence, where, says 
Hutchinson, " Roger Williams, with his usual humanity, 
although he disliked his principles and behavior, gave him 
shelter." Mr. Williams, many years afterwards, publicly 
averred,* that he did not approve of Mr. Gorton's princi- 
ples ; but this disapprobation did not induce him to refuse 
the rights of hospitality to the fugitive. He had himself 
tasted of the same cup, and, like Dido, had been taught by 
suffering to succor the miserable. 

Mr. Gorton, in January, 1641-2, purchased land at 
Pawtuxet, in the south part of the territory then included 
under the name of Providence, and within the limits of the 
present town of Cranston. He was soon joined by a num- 
ber of persons, who were disfranchised at Newport, on 
account, perhaps, of their attachment to him. 

A disturbance soon arose between Mr. Gorton's friends 
and the former inhabitants. The parties became so much 
exasperated, that they proceeded to acts of violence and 
bloodshed. Winthrop states, that " they came armed into 
the field, each against the other, but Mr. Williams pacified 
them for the present." Mr. Williams could not but de- 
plore such a feud, in his infant colony, and, with the pa- 
cific disposition which ever characterized him, he endeav- 
ored to allay the tumult, and produce a reconciliation ; but 
his efforts were unsuccessful. The passions of the parties 
were too strongly excited, to admit of any arbitration but 
force. The government at Providence was then, as we 
have seen, a simple compact ; and the citizens being 
divided in opinion and feeling, there was no superior power 

but it is thought some other matter was ingredient." Lechford's 
tract, called Plain Dealing, or News from New-England, is publish- 
ed in the Mass. His. Col. 3d series, 3d vol. Lechford's preface is 
dated January 17, 1641, after his return from America. He says 
that there were two hundred families on Rhode-Island. This must 
be a mistake. 

" Reply to Mr. Cotton, p. 113. 



184 MEMOIR OF 

to control the disturbers of the public peace. In this exi- 
gency, in November, 1641, some of the weaker party had 
recourse to the strange, and, as it proved, most disastrous 
expedient, of applying to the government of Massachusetts 
for aid or counsel.* The country was beyond the Umits 
of Massachusetts, which could not interfore. " We an- 
swered them," says Winthrop,f *' that we could not levy 
any war, without a General Court. For counsel, we told 
them, that except they did submit themselves to some ju- 
risdiction, either Plymouth or ours, we had no calling or 
warrant to interpose in their contentions, but if they were 
once subject to any, then they had a calling to protect 
them."j: 

' In 3 Mass. His. Col. vol. i. p. 2, is their letter, signed by William 
Field, William Harris, William Carpenter, William Wickenden, 
William Reinolds, Thomas Harris, Thomas Hopkins, Hugh Bevvitt, 
Joshua Winsor, Benedict Arnold, William Man, William W. Hunk- 
ino;es, and Robert R. West. The letter was written by Benedict 
Arnold. Roger Williams, also, wrote a letter to the government of 
Pvlassachusetts, in v/hich he said, '•' Pvlr. Gorton, having fbully abus- 
ed high and lev/, at Aquetneck, is now bewitching and bemadding 
poor Providence!" General Court's Vindication, May 30, 1665. It 
has been said, that Mr. Williams requested the government of Mas- 
sachusetts to interfere; but we have seen no evidence of this, and 
it is in itself highly improbable. The utmost which w^e can sup- 
pose him to ask, in such a case, would be temporary aid in sup- 
pressing a tumult. We may be sure that he would oppose the 
usurpafion of jurisdiction by Massachusetts. His letters show that 
he disap Droved it. 

t Vol.n. p. 59. 

I Winthrop introduces this accovint, by the remark, that '•' those of 
Providence, being all anabaptists, were divided in judgment; some 
were only against baptizing of infants, others denied all magistracy 
and chuiches, &c. of v/hich Gorton, who had lately been whipped 
at Aquetneck, [Newport] was their instructer and captain." Ihis 
observation is worthy of notice, as it shows hov/ loosely this fearful 
word anabaptist was applied, and as it discriminates between those 
who merely rejected the baptism of infants, and those who denied 
all magistracy and churches. It is certain, that all the inhabitants 
were ifot Baptists; and it is doubtful whether the allegation against 
Mr. Gorton, that he was opposed either to churches or magistracy, 
could be sustained. A letter from the H^on. Samuel Eddy, inserted 
in a note to Winthrop's Journal, vol. ii. p. 58, after mentioning that 
Gorton was in office almost constantly, after the establishment of 
a government, says : '• It would be a remarkable fact, that a man 
should be an enemy to magistracy, to religion, in short, a bad man, 
and yet constantly enjoy the confidence of his fellow townsmen, and 
receiv.' from them the hiirhest honors in their gift." 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 185 

The proposition to submit, either to Massachusetts or to 
Plymouth, did not meet with a very prompt reception by 
the aggrieved party at Pawtuxet. But, in September, 
1642, four of them (William Arnold, Robert Cole, William 
Carpenter, and Benedict Arnold,) appeared before the 
General Court, at Boston, and yielded themselves and their 
lands, to be governed and protected by Massachusetts. 
They were accepted, and Winthrop acknowledges that 
Massachusetts was desirous to spread her sway over the 
whole of the rising colonies around the Narraganset Bay. 
The right of these individuals to submit to the jurisdiction 
of Massachusetts must be denied ; for the territory had 
been purchased by Mr. Williams, and sold to his compan- 
ions and others, with the evident design, and the implied, 
if not express condition, that a new colony be established, 
as a refuge from the laws of Massachusetts, as well as from 
oppression elsewhere. To invite the extension of these 
laws over any portion of the colony, was to defeat the pur- 
pose of its settlement, and was, virtually, a violation of the 
covenant which the settlers had subscribed. 

But if these individuals had possessed the right to yield 
allegiance to Massachusetts, their surrender could not 
bind their fellow-citizens, and give to Massachusetts any 
claim to obedience from Mr. Gorton, or any other inhabit- 
ant of Providence. Yet Massachusetts immediately as- 
sumed a jurisdiction over all the inhabitants of Provi- 
dence. In October, the Governor and three of the assist- 
ants signed a warrant, requiring them to submit to Massa- 
chusetts ;* and commanding Mr. Gorton and his friends to 
come to Boston, to answer to the complaints of Mr. Ar- 
nold and his associates. To this summons a reply was re- 
turned, dated November 20, and signed by Mr. Gorton and 
eleven other persons, in which they denied the authority 
of Massachusetts, and refused to obey.f This answer is 
said to have been long, mystical, and contemptuous ; but 
the principle, which it maintained, was, indisputably, 
sound. 

* Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 113. 

t Backus, vol. i. p. 120. These persons were Samuel Gorton, 
Randal Holden, Robert Potter, John Wickes, John Warner, Richard 
Waterman, William Woodale, John Greene, Francis Weston. Rich- 
ard Carder, Nicholas Power, and Sampson Shatton. 



186 MEMOIR OF 

Mr. Gorton, and his eleven friends, thought it prudent 
to remove from Providence. They accordingly crossed 
the Pawtuxet river, the southern boundary of the territory 
purchased by Mr. Williams. They obtained from Mianti- 
nomo the cession of a tract of country, called Shawomet, 
afterwards named Warwick, for which they paid one hun- 
dred and forty-four fathoms of wampum.* Here they 
fixed their residence ; but, if the object of their removal 
was to escape the grasp of Massachusetts, they fared like 
many others, who have fled from apparent into real danger. 
Two Indian sachems, Pomham. and Sochonocho, who lived 
at Shawomet and Pawtuxet, claimed the territory as their 
own, and went to Boston, in June, 1643, where they com- 
plained of Mr. Gorton and his friends, as having taken 
their lands from them. These sachems then made a sur- 
render of themselves, and of the lands which they claimed, 
to Massachusetts, and promised fidelity, for themselves and 
their descendants. 

It appears, however, that Miantinomo, as the greatest 
and most povv^erful sachem, claimed the right to dispose of 
the land.t Pomham himself had signed the deed ; and he 
and Sochonocho, as subordinate sachems, seem to have 
had no authority to dispute the validity of the sale, or to 
cede the territory to Massachusetts. Roger Williams, the 
best authority on a question touching the usages of the In- 
dians, says, in a letter written several years afterwards, to 
the General Court of Massachusetts, concerning this 
transaction : " What was done was according to the law 
and tenor of the natives, I take it, in all New-England and 
America, viz. that the inferior sachems and subjects shall 
plant and remove at the pleasure of the highest and su- 
preme sachems ; and I humbly conceive, that it pleaseth 
the Most High and Only Wise to make use of such a bond 
of authority over them, without which they could not long 
subsist in human societies, in this wild condition wherein 
they are." 

"This sum, at 5s. 8d. per faihoin, was 401. ICs. The deed was 
dated January 12, 1G42--3. Backus, vol. i. p. 120. 

t Miantinomo was summoned to Boston, where he asserted his 
claim, but his arguments were not satisfactory to the Court. It was 
not convenient to admit liis pretensions ; and the Court were, we may 
suppose, scrupulous in examining his proofs. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 187 

These facts must be deemed a sufficient proof, that Mr. 
Gorton and his friends had a fair title to the lands, or, at 
least, that they must be acquitted of the charge of de- 
frauding the inferior sachems. But Massachusetts was 
not destitute of the inclination, which all states have usually 
possessed, to extend her authority. The submission of 
these sachems gave her a plausible pretext ; and her rulers 
again summoned Gorton and his friends to appear at Bos- 
ton, informing them that they were within the jurisdiction 
of Massachusetts. They again refused ; and an armed 
force of forty men was sent to Shawomet, who seized Mr. 
Gorton and ten of his friends, and carried them to Boston, 
where they were imprisoned. Their cattle were carried 
away with them, their property otherwise injured or seized, 
and their families left to the mercy of the Indians. 

At Boston, they were tried for their lives, not for any 
specific civil crime, but on the general charge of being 
enemies to true religion, and to civil authority. They were 
saved from death, by a majority, it is said, of two votes 
only. They were, nevertheless, sentenced to a severe pun- 
ishment. Mr. Gorton was ordered to be confined at 
Charlestown, and the others in different towns. Each was 
compelled to wear an iron chain, fast bolted round the leg, 
and in this manner to labor. If they spoke to any person, 
except an officer of church or state, they were to suffer 
death. They were kept at labor during the winter, and 
were then banished from Massachusetts, and from the lands 
at Shawomet, on pain of death. 

Mr. Gorton, and tvvo of his friends, afterwards went to 
England, where they obtained an order from the Earl of 
Warwick and the other commissioners of the plantations, 
dated August 19, 1644, requiring Massachusetts not to 
molest the settlers at Shawomet. Massachusetts reluctant- 
ly complied, and Mr. Gorton and his tbllowers occupied 
their lands in quiet. Mr. Gorton lived to a great age."" 



* 



*•' Gorton,'' says Hutchinson, (vol. i. p. 11") " published an ac- 
count of his sufferings. Mr. Winslow, the agent for Massachusetts, 
answered him. In 1665, he preferred his petition to the commis- 
sioners sent over by King Charles the Second, for recompense for 
the wrongs done him by Massachusetts, alleging, that besides his 
other sufferings, he and his friends had eighty head of cattle taken 
and sold. Massachusetts, in their answer, chaige him with hereti- 



188 MEMOIR OP 

We have stated these proceedings at considerable 
length, because they are connected with the history of 
Mr. Williams. They exhibit strongly the temper of those 
times. The conduct of Massachusetts none will now de- 
fend. It was a manifest usurpation, and a cruel abuse 
of power. It is a profitable example of the manifold 
evils of erecting the civil government into a court of in- 
quisition. It was the alleged heresies and blasphemies 
of Mr. Gorton and his friends, against which the edge 
of this persecution was directed ; and these unhappy 
men narrowly escaped the fate which, a few years 
later, befel the Quakers. The rulers and clergy of Mas- 
sachusetts, undoubtedly, thought that they were impelled 
by an honest zeal for the purity of religion and the glory 
of God. Their conduct proves, that a being so fallible as 
man, is unfit to be intrusted with power over the con- 
science. 

It is difficult to ascertain the true character and real 
opinions of Mr. Gorton. If the statements of his oppo- 
nents could be safely received, we should view him as a 
wild and turbulent fanatic. But we have seen much rea- 
vson to distrust the representations, w^hich writers of that 
age have furnished of Mr. Gorton, and others. He was, 
unquestionably, a bold, zealous, eloquent man, of consid- 
erable talents and learning, and easily exasperated, by op- 
position, to stubborn and contumacious resistance. He 
possessed the art of securing the firm attachment of his 
friends ; a proof that he possessed some virtues, besides 
consistency of character. A competent authority, quoted 
in a preceding page, has testified to the general purity of 
his morals, and to the high estimation in which he was held 



cal tenets, both in religion and civil government, and with an un- 
just possession of the Indian lands in the vicinity of the colonies, 
for tlae sake of disturbing their peace ; and add, that the goods which 
they seized did not amount to the charge of their prosecution ; but 
they do not sufficiently vindicate their seizing their persons or goods, 
without the limits of their jurisdiction, and conclude with hoping 
that his Majesty will excuse any circumstantial error in their pro- 
ceedings." In the appendix of Hutchinson's first volume, is a De- 
fence by Gorton, dated Warwick, June 30, 1G69, and addressed to 
Nathaniel Morton, in which the charges in the Memorial are dis- 
cussed with an ability, which shows that Gorton could write, when 
he chose, clearly and forcibly. 



ilOGER WILLIAMS. 189 

by his fellow-citizens, as indicated by the fact, that, " from 
the first establishment of government, he was almost con- 
stantly in office." As to his religious opinions, it is affirm- 
ed, by the same authority, that " he spiritualized every 
thing, and one would almost have thought that he had 
taken the tour of Swedenborg."* 

It is certain that Roger Williams disapproved Mr. Gor- 
ton's religious opinions, but did not consider them as dan- 
gerous, or as impairing his civil rights. f 

* Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 53, note. 

t A gentleman of Providence, William R. Staples, Esq. has been 
engaged, for some time, in preparing a revised edition of Gorton's 
work, entitled " Simplicity's Defence against Seven Headed Poli- 
cy," with extensive notes and appendices. This book, it is hoped, 
will soon be pubhshed, and will furnish the means of forming a cor- 
rect opinion concerning Gorton, and the transactions in which he 
was a party and a sufferer. 



17 



190 MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER XV. 



Birth of Mr. Williams' second son — league of the colonies — war be- 
tween the Narragansets and Mohegans — capture and death of 
Miantinomo — Mr. Williams embarks for England. 

We have, in the account of Mr. Gorton, advanced be- 
yond other events which claim a notice. 

Mr. Williams' second son, Daniel, was born February 
13, 1642. 

The colonists were alarmed, in 1642, by reports of a 
meditated design, among the Indians, of a general war. 
The natives began to acquire the use of fire-arms, with 
which, together with ammunition, they were supplied by 
English and Dutch traders. Vigorous measures of defence 
were accordingly adopted in the colonies. Connecticut 
proposed to attack the Indians, but Massachusetts refused 
to join in the vv^ar, on the ground that there was not suffi- 
cient proof of hostile designs on the part of the Indians. 
She, nevertheless, disarmed the natives within her limits. 
Miantinomo came to Boston, and ,protested that ' he was 
innocent. 

The year 1643 was made memorable in the history 
of New-England, by the union of the colonies. On the 
19th of May, articles of confederation were signed, at Bos- 
ton, by the Commissioners of Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
New-Haven and Plymouth, by which these four colonies 
formed a league, under the name of" the United Colonies 
of New-England." The preface to the articles explains 
the objects of the confederation : 

" Whereas we all came into these parts of America with 
one and the same end and aim, namely, to advance the 
kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to enjoy the liber- 
ties of the Gospel in purity with peace ; and whereas, by 
our settling, by the wise providence of God, we are further 
dispersed upon the sea-coasts and rivers than was at first 
intended, so that we cannot, according to our desire, with 
convenience communicate in one government and juris- 
diction, and whereas we live encompassed with people of 



ROllER WILLIAMS. 191 

several nations and strange languages, which hereafter 
may prove injurious to us or our posterity ; and forasmuch 
as the natives have formerly committed sundry insolences 
and outrages upon several plantations of the English, and 
have of late combined themselves against us ; and seeing, 
by reason of the sad distractions in England, (which they 
have heard of) and by which they know we are hindered 
both from that humble way of seeking advice and reaping 
those comfortable fruits of protection, which, at other times, 
we might well expect ; we, therefore, do conceive it our 
bounden duty, without delay, to enter into a present con- 
sociation among ourselves, for mutual help and strength in 
all future concernment, that, as in nation and religion, so 
in other respects, we be and continue one."* 

By the articles, it was stipulated, that two commission- 
ers from each of the colonies should be chosen, to meet 
annually, at Boston, Hartford, New-Haven and Plymouth, 
in successive years, and that this Congress should deter- 
mine questions of peace or war, and consult for the gen- 
eral welfare of the colonies. This league continued till 
the year 1686. It had a beneficial effect, and was proba- 
bly the germ from which sprung the confederation, and 
the subsequent union of the States, under our present happy 
government. Rhode-Island was never allowed the honor 
of an admission into the New-England confederacy. The 
want of a charter was, at first, the pretext ; but when the 
charter was obtained, there was no more disposition inaii 
before to forgive this offending sister, and admit her to the 
privileges of the family compact. The second charter 
itself was offensive to the other colonies, for it recognised, 
as a fundamental principle, " a full liberty in religious con- 
cernments." The exclusion of Rhode-Island from the 
confederacy exposed her to many inconveniences and 
dangers. She was left without defence, except by her own 
citizens, and a law of the New-England Congress virtually 
forbad her to purchase arms and ammunition for her own 
protection. But the influence of Mr. Williams among the 
Indians preserved the colony from perils, to which the in- 
exorable aversion of her sister colonies had abandoned her. 
It was happy for those colonies, that their conduct met 

" Winthrop, vol, ii. p. 101. 



192 MEMOIR OF 

with no retaliation, but that Mr. Williams and his colony 
steadily employed their influence to appease the ire of the 
savages, and to protect their countrymen. 

A war soon commenced between Miantinomo and Un- 
cas, the Mohegan sachem. In 1637, Miantinomo made 
an agreement with the government of Massachusetts, not 
to fight, without their consent, with any of the Indians, 
and particularly not to invade Uncas. In the next year, 
there was a tripartite agreement made at Hartford, be- 
tween Miantinomo, Uncas and the English, in which it 
was stipulated, that those sachems should not make war 
on each other, for any alleged injuries, without an appeal 
to the English. In the spring of the year 1643, an at- 
tempt, it was said, was made to assassinate Uncas, by a 
Pequod Indian, one of his subjects, and it was suspected 
that he was incited to this act by Miantinomo. Other 
attempts, it is alleged, were made to take the life of Uncas, 
and in the same year, the two sachems came to open war. 
Miantinomo, v/ith one thousand Narraganset warriors, at- 
tacked Uncas, in August, 1643, but was defeated and 
taken prisoner, though the force of Uncas was only three 
or four hundred. Miantinomo had a coat of mail, or cors- 
let, with which, it has been said, without sufficient proof, 
he Vv'ij, furnished by Mr. Gorton. Uncas carried his pris- 
oners to Hartford, at the suggestion of Mr. Gorton,* who 
wished to save his friend, and therefore wrote to Uncas, 
threatening him with the resentment of the English, if he 
did not iLirrender the captive. 

At Hartford, Miantinomo was imprisoned, and applica- 
tion was made to the Commissioners of the United Colo- 
nies, at their session at Boston, September, 1643, to deter- 
mine his fate. The Commissioners thought, that they 
could neither release him with safety, nor justly put him to 
death. But they called in to their aid " five of the most 
judicious elders, "f and these ministers of the Gospel soon 
agreed, that the unhappy chief ought to die. This answer 
was accordingly returned, and Miantinomo was delivered 
to Uncas, who carried him within his own territories, and 

*Mr. Williams was absent, having sailed for England in June or 
July preceding. Had he been in the country, he would certainly 
have used his influence in favor of Miantinomo. 

I Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 131, 



ROGEH WILLIAMS. 193 

there butchered him. The government at Hartford sent 
twelve or fourteen soldiers with Uncas, as a guard to pro- 
tect him from the rage of the Narragansets. 

This transaction has been defended, on the grounds, that 
Miantinomo was at the head of a general conspiracy 
against the English, that he had violated the agreement 
made at Hartford, and that he was of a turbulent spirit. 
Other charges were alleged against him ; but it is not easy 
to convince a reader of the present day, that the death of 
the sachem was either deserved or necessary. That the 
ministers of the Gospel doom.ed him to death, while the 
civilians could hesitate, is remarkable. It is another proof 
of the danger of permitting the clerical and civil functions 
to interfere with each other. The clergymen probably 
treated the case of Miantinomo as a religious question. 
These good men, we may fear, were misled by that pro- 
pensity, to which we have before alluded, to regard the 
events of Jewish history as authoritative precedents. They, 
perhaps, viewed Miantinomo as a heathen conspirator 
against the people of God, and deemed him worthy of the 
fate of Agag. But we turn away, with a sigh, from this 
melancholy subject, by quoting the words of a distinguished 
citizen of Providence.* "This was the end of Miantino- 
mo, the most potent Indian prince the people of New- 
England had ever any concern with ; and this was the re- 
ward he received for assisting them, seven years before, in 
their war with the Pequods. Surely a Rhode-Island man 
may be permitted to mourn his unhappy fate, and drop a 
tear on the ashes of Miantinomo, who, with his uncle Ca- 
nonicus, were the best friends and greatest benefactors the 
colony ever had. They kindly received, fed and protected 
the first settlers of it, when they were in distress, and were 
strangers and exiles, and all mankind else were their ene- 
mies ; and, by this kindness to them, drew upon themselves 



^ Gov. Hopkins' History of Providence, 2 His. Col. ix. 202. See 
note to Winthrop, vol. ii. 133, where ?vlr. Savage says: •' With pro- 
found regret, I am compelled to express a suspicion, that means 
of sufficient influence would easily have been found for the security 
of themselves, the pacifying of Uncas, and the preservation of Mian- 
tinomo, had he not encouraged the sale of Shawomet and Pawtuxet 
to Gorton and his heterodox associates." 

17* 



1 94 M E M O I R O F 

the resentment of the neighboring colonies, and hastened 
the untimely death of the young king." 

But let us remember, that it is not easy to judge fairly 
of the conduct of our fathers. We cannot feel, as they 
did, the exigencies of their situation. They were weak, 
and surrounded with powerful tribes, to whom rumor and 
fear constantly attributed the design to unite in a general 
conspiracy for the destruction of the English. Miantinomo 
was suspected, probably without sufficient evidence, of an 
ambitious purpose to be the head of such a league. The 
colonists, perhaps, thought themselves justified, by the 
right of self-preservation, in putting to death the aspiring 
chief, before he could mature his plans, and execute his 
purpose. 

We must now return to Mr. Williams. The settlements 
at Providence and on Rhode-Island had continued to in- 
crease, for several years. They had hitherto been distinct, 
but their principles and interests were so similar, that an 
alliance as one colony became manifestly expedient. The 
necessity of a charter, from the government of England, 
was apparent, to protect them from the encroachments of the 
other colonies, and to give a sanction and authority to their 
government. A committee was appointed, at an assembly 
in Newport, September 19, 1642, with instructions to pro- 
cure a charter. This committee intrusted the agency to 
Mr. Williams, who, on behalf of that colony and his own, 
agreed to visit England on this important errand.* 

He accordingly left his family, and proceeded to Man- 
hattoes, (New-York) to embark for England. It would 
have been more convenient and agreeable to sail from Bos- 
ton, but Mr. Williams was not permitted to enter the terri- 
tories of Massachusetts, notwithstanding the good service 
which he had performed for them in their hour of need. 
But at Manhattoes, he had an opportunity to use his influ- 



" In his letter to Major Mason, Mr. Williams says : ^' Upon fre- 
quent exceptions ag-ainst Providence men, that we had no authority 
for civil government, I went purposely to England, and, upon my 
report and petition, the Parliament granted us a charter of govern- 
ment for these parts, so judged vacant on all hands. And upon this, 
the country about was more friendly, and wrote to us, and treated 
us as an authorized colony, only the differences of our consciences 
much obstructed." 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 195 

ence with the savages, and to display his pacific principles. 
A war had been provoked, by the wanton cruelty of the 
Dutch, and the Indians assailed them with great fury. 
They burnt several houses in the neighborhood of Manhat- 
toes, and killed several persons, among whom was Mrs. 
Hutchinson, with all but one of her family. The Indians 
on Long-Island engaged in the war, and burnt several of 
the Dutchmen's houses. They assaulted the dwelling of 
Lady Moody, who not long before had left Salem, in con- 
sequence of her Baptist principles.* Mr. Williams imme- 
diately interceded, and, by his mediation, the Indians were 
pacified, and peace was restored between them and the 
Dutch. This event, according- to Winthrop, occurred in 
June, 1643, and we thus learn the date of Mr. Williams' 
first embarkation for England, which must have taken 
place soon after. 

* Backus, vol. i. p. 148. Winthrop places Lady Moody's removal 
from Salem after Mr. Williams' mediation with the Long-Island In- 
dians. He speaks respectfully of her character before her lapse into 
the heresy of denying infant baptism : " The Lady Moody, a wise 
and anciently religious woman, being taken with the error of deny- 
ing baptism to iutauts, was dealt withal by many of the elders and 
others, and admonished by the church of Salem, (whereof she was 
a member) but persisting still, and to avoid further trouble, she re- 
moved to the Dutch, against the advice of all her friends. Many 
others, infected with anabaptism, removed thither also. She was 
after excommunicated." Winthrop, vol. ii. pp. 123-4. 



196 MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER XVI. 



Mr. Williams' first visit to England — Key to the Indian languages — 
charter — birth of Mr. Williams' youngest child — Bloody Tenet — 
he returns to America — reception at Boston and Providence— 
again aids in preventing an Indian war. 

Some time during the summer of 1643, Mr. Williams 
embarked at New- York for his native land. A Dutch ship 
furnished him with a conveyance, which his own country- 
men had denied him. Of the length and incidents of the 
voyage, we know nothing. The vessel, we may be sure, 
did not afford the sumptuous accommodations, nor pursue 
her course over the Atlantic with the celerity, of the packet 
ships of the present day. 

Mr. Williams was not of a mood to be idle, either on the 
land or on the ocean. He acted on the principle, so beau- 
tifully expressed in one of his books, " one grain of time's 
inestimable sand is worth a golden mountain." He has 
told us, that he employed his leisure, during this voyage, in 
preparing the materials of his Key to the Indian languages : 
" I drew the materials, in a rude lump, at sea, as a private 
help to my own memory, that I might not, by my present 
absence, lightly lose what I had so dearly bought in some 
few years' hardship and charges among the barbarians."* 

This book, which is an honorable specimen of his talents 
as a writer, his industry and acuteness in collecting the 
words and phrases of an unwritten language, and his be- 
nevolent zeal for the welfare of the Indians, must have 
been nearly finished for the press during the voyage. It 
was printed before the close of the year 1643, and we may 
suppose, that after his arrival in England, his endeavors to 
procure the charter, and other engagements, would leave 
him little leisure for writing. Of this book we shall have 
occasion to speak again, in a subsequent chapter, in which 
we shall briefly review his literary character and writings. 

Mr. Williams arrived in England at a most critical period. 
A civil war then convulsed the nation. The misguided 

~* * Key, p. 17. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 197 

King, Charles I. by a series of unjustifiable measures, re- 
pugnant to the constitution, and in violation of his own 
promises and oaths, had provoked an opposition, which 
issued in a rupture and a bloody war. The King had fled 
from London, and Parliament had assumed the executive 
as well as legislative authority. The King and the Parlia- 
ment levied troops, the sword was unsheathed, and, after a 
sanguinary struggle of several years, the unhappy Charles 
died on the scaffold. Episcopacy was abolished, the mon- 
archy was overturned, and a commonwealth, under the 
protectorship of Cromwell, was established on its ruins. 

Mr. Williams arrived at an early period in this disastrous 
conflict. Its issue was then very doubtful. The Episcopal 
clergy, and a large portion of the aristocracy, were on the 
side of the King. With these were joined many of the 
quiet men of the kingdom, who, while they disapproved the 
King's conduct, were led by a sentiment of loyalty, and a 
hope that he might be persuaded to a right course, to rally 
around the monarch. The patriot would have been satis- 
fied with a guarantee for the rights of the people ; and the 
advocates of religious liberty would have been content with 
toleration. Butlhe inflexible obstinacy and arbitrary prin- 
ciples of the King daily strengthened his enemies and 
alienated his friends. It soon became evident, that the 
King must yield, or the nation must submit to slavery. The 
contest ended, as every struggle between despotism and 
liberty, the rulers and the people, must, sooner or later, 
terminate : 

" Foi- Freedom's battle, once begun, 

Bequeath'd by bleeding sire to son, 

Though baffled ofl, is ever won."* 

The disturbed condition of the kingdom was, in some 
respects, favorable to the objects of Mr. Williams. It dis- 
posed the Parliament to strengthen themselves, by concil- 
iating the favor of their brethren in America. The House 
of Commons, in March, 1642-3, passed a memorable re- 
solve, in favor of New-England, exempting its imports and 
exports from customs, subsidy or taxation. In November, 
1643, not long, we presume, after Mr. Williams' arrival, 
Parliament passed an ordinance, appointing the Earl of 

* Byron's Giaour, 



198 MEMOIR OF 

Warwick Governor in Chief and Lord High Admiral of the 
American colonies, with a council of five peers and twelve 
commoners. It empowered him, in conjunction with his 
associates, to examine the state of their affairs, to send for 
papers and persons, to remove governors and officers, and 
appoint others in their places, and to assign to these such 
part of the power now granted as he should think proper.* 

From these commissioners Mr. Williams easily obtained, 
by the aid of Sir Henry Vane, one of their number, a char- 
ter for the colony of Rhode-Island, dated March 14, 1643-4, 
in which the most ample powers were granted to the in- 
habitants to form and maintain a civil government. t 

During Mr. Williams' absence, his youngest child, Jo- 
seph, was born, in December, 1643, according to Backus, 
though his tombstone, now standing in the family grave- 
yard, in Cranston, (R. I.) bears an inscription, which 
states that he was born in 1644. 

While in England, Mr. Williams, notwithstanding the 
pressure of his duties, and the disturbed state of the public 
mind, found leisure to prepare for the press his celebrated 
book, entitled " The Bloody Tenet of Persecution for Cause 
of Conscience, discussed in a conference between Truth 
and Peace, who, in all tender affection, present to the 
High Court of Parliament, as the result of their discourse, 
these amongst other passages of highest consideration." 
In this book, which he dedicated to Parliament, and which 
was doubtless read, with interest and profit, by many of the 
leading men in England,! Mr. Williams discusses the 
great principles of religious liberty, in answer to a letter of 
the Rev. John Cotton. Mr. Cotton wrote a reply, to which, 
in accordance with the humor of those times, he gave the 
quaint and punning title of " The Bloody Tenet Washed, 
and made White in the Blood of the Lamb." Mr. WiU 
liams published a rejoinder, with a title in the same strain, 
" The Bloody Tenet yet more Bloody, by Mr. Cotton's 
Endeavor to Wash it White." Of these books we shall 
give some account, in a subsequent chapter. It may suffice 

* Holmes' Annals, vol. i. p. 273. 

t For a copy of the charter, see Appendix E. 

t The Westminster Assembly of Divines, who were then in ses- 
sion, might have learned from this book, if they had read it. lessons 
which they greatly needed, 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 199 

now, to say, that Mr. Cotton's argument rests on a sophis- 
tical distinction between persecution for religious opinions, 
and punishment for maintaining errors. He disclaims the 
right to " persecute any for conscience rightly informed ;" 
but if a man possesses *' an erroneous and blind conscience, 
in fundamental and weighty points," he ought, after suita- 
ble admonition, to be punished by the civil magistrate, not 
because he entertains heretical principles, but because he 
is wilfully blind and criminally obstinate, in refusing to 
believe what is clearly revealed in the Scriptures. It 
seems surprising, that a man of Mr. Cotton's abilities and 
virtues, could seriously maintain so transparent an absur- 
dity ; for if the magistrate be allowed to judge what is " an 
erroneous and blind conscience," he will decide according 
to his own construction of the word of God, and will pro- 
nounce all who differ from himself to be culpably obstinate, 
and worthy of punishment. This is precisely the case in 
every instance of persecution ; and the Court of High 
Commission, who expelled Mr. Cotton from England, 
would have needed no other defence of their conduct than 
his own arguments. But Mr. Cotton, though a great and 
a good man, was misled by his views of the duty of the 
civil magistrate to interfere, for the preservation of purity 
in the Christian church, as the civil authorities were re- 
quired to guard the Jewish religion, and to smite, with 
unsparing severity, those who renounced or corrupted it. 

Mr. Williams, in his book, exposes the fallacy of Mr. 
Cotton's arguments ; and by cogent reasoning and acute 
expositions of various texts, he establishes this fundamental 
principle, as alike taught by the Scriptures and by reason, 
that men are not responsible to each other for their re- 
ligious opinions, and ought not to suffer molestation, or in- 
jury, in their persons or property, for those opinions, nor for 
the actions by which they are expressed and maintained, 
unless the civil peace is disturbed. In this case, their 
conduct ceases to be a matter of religious concern merely, 
and comes within the cognizance of the civil magistrate, 
Mr. Williams is very clear and decided on this point. 
Though he was accused as a turbulent contemner of mag- 
istracy and civil order, yet in this book, printed within 
a few years after his banishment, he says, "■ I speak not 
of scandals against the civil state, which the civil state 



200 MEMOIR OF 

ought to punish* This book is written with great ability^ 
it shows learning and taste, and it breathes a tone of cour- 
tesy which was not common at that time, and which would 
not dishonor this age. 

Mr. Williams returned to America, in the autumn of 
1644. He landed at Boston, September 17. He was em- 
boldened to venture on this forbidden ground, by the fol- 
lowing letter from several noblemen and other members of 
Parliament, addressed " To the Right Worshipful the Gov- 
ernor and Assistants, and the rest of our worthy friends in 
the plantation of Massachusetts Bay, in New-England :" 

" Our much honored friends : 
'' Taking notice some of us of long time of Mr. Roger 
Williams' good affections and conscience, and of his suffer- 
ings by our common enemy and oppressors of God's people, 
the prelates, as also of his great industry and travels in his 
printed Indian labors, in your parts, (the like whereof we 
have not seen extant from any part of America) and in 
which respect it hath pleased both Houses of Parliament 
to grant unto him, and friends with him, a free and abso- 
lute charter of civil government for those parts of his abode, 
and withal sorrowfully resenting, that amongst good men 
(our friends) driven to the ends of the world, exercised 
with the trials of a wilderness, and who mutually give good 
testimony, each of the other, (as we observe you do of him, 
and he abundantly of you,) there should be such a distance ; 
we thought it fit, upon divers considerations, to profess our 
great desires of both your utmost endeavors of nearer 
closing and of ready expressing those good affections, 
(which we perceive you bear to each other) in effectual 
performance of all friendly offices. The rather because of 
those bad neighbors you are likely to find too near you in 
Virginia, and the unfriendly visits from the west of Eng- 
land and from Ireland. That howsoever it may please the 
Most High to shake our foundations, yet the report of your 
peaceable and prosperous plantations may be some refresh- 
ings to your true and faithful friends." 

This letter procured for Mr. Williams permission to pro- 
ceed unmolested to Providence, but it produced no relaxa- 

* Bloody Tenet, p. GA. 



ROGER W I L 1, 1 A M S. 20 I 

tioii of the policy of Massachusetts towards him. Mr. 
Hubbard (p.-349) says : " Upon the receipt of the said letter, 
the Governor and magistrates of the Massachusetts found, 
upon examination of their hearts, they saw no reason to 
condemn themselves for any former proceedings against 
Mr. Williams; but for any offices of Christian love, and 
duties of humanity, they were very willing to maintain a 
mutual correspondency with him. But as to his dangerous 
principles of separation, unless he can be brought to lay 
them down, they see no reason why to concede to him, or 
any so persuaded, free liberty of ingress and egress, lest 
any of their people should be draw^n away with his erro- 
neous opinions." The aversion to Mr. Williams' princi- 
ples, both religious* and political, was not abated by his 
return with a charter, which invested the heretical colony 
w ith the dignity of an independent government, and armed 

* Massachusetts was the more disinclined to show favor to Mr. 
Williams and his colony, because the Baptists began to multiply. 
A Baptist church was formed about this time, in Newport, by Dr. 
John Clarke and a few others, and in Massachusetts itself the new 
doctrine spread. The General Court was aroused, therefore, to an 
effort to crush the growing sect ; and no method seemed to promise 
more success, than to wield against it a legislative denunciation 
edged by an appeal to the popular dread of anabaptism : 

" Immortale odium, et nunquam sanabile vulnus." 

They accordingly passed the following act, in November, 1644 : 

-' Forasmuch as experience hath plentifully and often proved, that 
since the first rising of the Anabaptists, about one hundred years 
since, they have been the incendiaries of the commonwealth, and 
the infectors of persons in main matters of religion, and the troublers 
of churches in all places where they have been, and that they who have 
held the baptizing of infants unlawful, have usually held other errors 
or heresies therewith, though they have (as other heretics use to do) 
concealed the same till they spied out a fit advantage and opportunity 
to vent them, by way of question or scruple; and whereas divers of 
this kind have, since our coming into New-England, appeared 
amongst ourselves, some whereof (as others before them) denied the 
ordinance of magistracy, and the lawfulness of making war, and 
others the lawfulness of magistrates, and their inspection into any 
breach of the first table; which opinions, if they should be connived 
at by us, are like to be increased amongst us, and so must necessa- 
rily bring guilt upon us, infection and trouble to the churches, and 
hazard to tbe w^hole commonwealth ; it is ordered and agreed, that, 
if any person or persons, within this jurisdiction, shall either openly 
condemn or oppose the baptizing of infants, or go about secretly to 
seduce others from the approbation or use thereof, or shall purposely 

18 



202 MEMOIR OF 

her with the shield of the parent state. Her example be- 
came, thenceforth, more dangerous ; and the united colo- 
nies steadily pursued towards her an unfriendly policy. 

Mr. Williams' return to Providence was greeted by a 
voluntary expression of the attachment and gratitude of its 
inhabitants, which is one of the most satisfactory testimo- 
nies to his character. They met him at Seekonk, with 
fourteen canoes, and carried him across the river to Provi- 
dence. This simple act of respect must have been highly 
grateful to his feelings. It does equal honor to him, and 
to his fellow citizens, who thus showed themselves capable 
of estimating, in a manner worthy of freemen, the services 
of a friend and public benefactor.* 

We may suppose, that Mr. Williams, after his return, 
immediately endeavored to carry into operation the charter 
which he had procured with so much labor and expense. 
But it was a work which required time, to bring the inhab- 
itants of the several settlements at Providence, Newport, 
Portsmouth and Warwick, to agree on a form of govern- 
ment, and unite as one colony. The charter prescribed 
no form of civil polity, and it was accordingly necessary to 
manage the negotiations between the towns with much 
delicacy and skill. 

In the mean time, Mr. Williams had another opportunity 
to interpose his beneficent agency in favor of the colonists. 
The Narraganset Indians, exasperated by what they judged 
to be the murder of their favorite sachem, Miantinomo, 
were bent on vengeance, with the unrelenting ferocity of 
savages. They alleged, that they had paid wampum, to 

depart the congregation at tlie ministration of the ordinance, or shall 
deny the ordinance of magistracy, or their lawful right and authority 
to make war, or to punish the outward breaches of the first table, 
and shall appear to the Court wilfully and obstinately to continue 
therein, after due time and means of conviction, every such person 
or persons shall be sentenced to banishment.'' Backus, vol. i. p. 150. 
* This incident is related by Richard Scott, in his letter, inserted 
at the close of the '^ New-England Firebrand Quenched." Mr. 
Scott disliked Mr. Williams, and his comment on the transaction 
referred to is an instance of the effect of a man's feelings on his 
judgment respecting the conduct of others. '' The man," he says, 
" being hemmed in, in the middle of the canoes, was so elevated and 
transported out of himself, that I was condemned in myself, that 
amongst the rest, I had been an instrument to set him up in his pride 
and folly." 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 203 

the amount of forty pounds, as a ransom for the chieftain's 
life. They therefore resolved on war with the Mohegans, 
until they should obtain the head of Uncas. The commis- 
sioners of the colonies, at their meeting in Hartford, in 
September, 1644, appeased their animosity for a while, the 
Narraganset sachems promising not to commence hostili- 
ties against Uncas until after the next planting time, and 
likewise after thirty days' notice to the government of Mas- 
sachusetts and Connecticut, 

The commissioners, this year, passed an act, forbidding 
any person to sell any kind of arms or ammunition to an 
Indian, or to repair any weapon for him, under a heavy 
penalty. This measure was called for by the rapid pro- 
gress of the Indians in the use of fire-arms. The law had, 
it is probable, some effect, but like similar laws in regard 
to the Indians, in later times, unprincipled men found many 
ways to evade it. 

The Narragansets soon commenced the war, and killed 
several of the Mohegans. An extraordinary meeting of 
the commissioners was held in Boston, in July, 1645, when 
it was judged necessary to send messengers to the sachems 
of the Narragansets and Mohegans, requiring them to sus- 
pend hostilities and come to Boston. The messengers 
were informed by the Narragansets, that they were re- 
solved on war. They accordingly returned to Boston, with 
a letter from Mr. Williams, informing the government, 
that the Narragansets would soon commence hostilities 
against the colonists, except at Providence and Rhode- 
Island, the Indians having, from regard to Mr. Williams, 
agreed to maintain a neutrality with these settlements. 

The commissioners immediately resolved to raise a force 
of three hundred men,* to march immediately for the pro- 
tection of the Mohegans. A part of the levy from Massa- 
chusetts marched accordingly. Two messengers were 
again sent to the Narraganset sachems, with directions to 
take Mr. Benedict Arnold with them as their interpreter. 
But they could not find Mr. Arnold at Providence, and 
learned that he dared not venture among the Indians with- 
out a guard. But Mr. Williams had been sent for by the 

* From Massachusetts, 190; Plymouth, 40 ; Connecticut, 40 ; New- 
Haven, 30. 



204 M E M O 1 R OF 

sachems, doubtless to advise them in this crisis. The mes^ 
sengers, therefore, solicited his aid, and he served them as 
an interpreter. By his mediation, Passacus,* the sachem, 
and other chief men, were persuaded to go to Boston, 
where a treaty was concluded between the commissioners 
and the sachems, by which the latter agreed to make peace 
with Uncas, and to pay the colonists two thousand fathoms 
of wampum, at different times, as a remuneration for their 
expenses in the war. This treaty was concluded in Au- 
gust, 1645, and the sachems left a child of Passacus, a 
child of his brother, and two other children of persons of 
note, as a security for the faithful performance of the 
treaty.t 

* He was a brother of Miantinomo, and succeeded him. 

f The following note, in Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 134, may be prop- 
erly quoted here : 

^' Uncas, the sachem of the Mohegans, was hated and envied by 
the Narragansets, for his attachment to the English, and the distin- 
guishing favors shown him in return. In 1638, having entertained 
some of the Pequods, after the war with them, and fearing he had 
given offence, he came to the Governor at Boston, and brought a 
present, which was at first refused, but afterwards, the Governor 
being satisfied that he had no designs against the English, it was 
accepted, and he promised to submit to such orders as he should re- 
ceive from the English, concerning the Pequods, and also concern- 
ing the Narragansets, and his behavior towards them, and con- 
cluded his speech with these words : ' This heart (laying his hand 
upon his breast) is not mine, but yours. Command me any difficult 
service, and I will do it; I have no men, but they are all yours. I 
will never believe any Indian. against the English any more.' He 
was dismissed, with a present, went home joyful, carrying a letter 
of protection for himself and men through the English plantations, 
and never was engaged in hostilities against any of the colonics, 
although he survived Philip's war, and died a very old man, after 
the year 1680. 

" The Narragansets failed in the payment of the wampum, and in 
1646, messengers were sent to them from the commissioners, but 
Passacus, their chief sachem, not attending, in 1647 the message 
was repeated, and he then pretended sickness, and sent Ninigret, 
a sachem of the Nianticks, to act in his behalf, and told the messen- 
ger, that it was true he had not kept his covenant, but added, that he 
entered into it for fear of the army which he saw, and that he was 
told, that if he did not set his hand to such and such things, the 
army should go against the Narragansets. When Ninigret appeared, 
he asked how the Narragansets became indebted to the English in 
so large a sum, and being told that it was for the expense tlie Nar- 
ragansets had put them to by their breach of covenant, he then 
pleaded poverty, but the commissioners insisting on the demand, lie 



ROGliR WILLIAMS. 205 

Thus was New-England saved, a second time, from a 
general Indian war, by means, in no small part, of the 
good offices of Mr. Williams. The small English army 
was disbanded, and the 4th of September was observed, by 
the colonists, as a day of thanksgiving to God. This 
measure was worthy of our pious ancestors. We may hope, 
that while they justly ascribed the praise of their deliver- 
ance to God, they felt some emotions of gratitude towards 
their exiled benefactor. 

sent some of his people back to procure what he could, but brought 
two hundred fathoms only. They gave him leave to go home, and 
allowed him further time, The whole was not paid until 1650, when 
Capt. Atherton, with twenty men, was sent to demand the arrears, 
which was then about three hundred fathoms. Passacus put him off 
some time with dilatory answers, not suffering him to come into his 
presence. In the mean while his people were gathering together, but 
the Captain, carrying his twenty soldiers to the door of the wigwam, 
entered himself, with his pistol in his hand, leaving his men without, 
and seizing Passacus by the hair of his head, drew him from the 
midst of a great number of his attendants, threatening that if one of 
them offered to stir, he would despatch him. Passacus presently 
paid dovv^u what was demanded, and the English returned in safety. 
Ninigret, after this, began to stir up new troubles from the Nian- 
ticks, but upon sending Capt. Davis, with a troop of horse, into the 
Indian country, he was struck with a panic, and would not be seen 
b}"- the English until he had assurance of his life, and then he readily 
complied with their demands, and they and the other Indians con- 
tinued quiet many years, until by familiar intercourse, and the use 
of fire-arms, they became more emboldened, and engaged in the war 
in 1675, which issued in their total destruction. Records of United 
Colonies.'' 



18* 



206 M E IM O 1 II O F 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Letters to John Winthrop — organization of the government— vote 
of money to Mr. Williams— agreement of several inhabitants of 
Providence — dissentions — Indian troubles. 

We have now the pleasure of presenting the first of a 
number of unpublished letters, addressed to John Win- 
throp, the son of Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts.* 
Mr. Winthrop resided, for several years, at Nameug, or 
Pequod, now New-London, in Connecticut. It appears 
from one of the letters, that Mr. Williams became ac- 
quainted with him in England ; and the correspondence 
which we shall introduce, will sliow that the friendship was 
strong and mutual. We cannot stay to offer comments on 
the letters. They relate to politics, literature, agriculture, 
and various other topics, while religion is diffused, like a 
grateful fragrance, through them all. 

This and other letters are dated at Narraganset, or Caw- 
cawmqussick, (now North-Kingstown,) where Mr. Wil- 
liams, about this time, purchased an estate, and built a 
trading house, which he afterwards sold, to obtain money 
for his second visit to England. 

" For his honored, kind friend, Mr. John Winthrop, at 
Pequod, these. 



* Allen says of him, in his Dictionary, " His fine genius was im- 
proved by a liberal education in the Universities of Cambridge and 
of Dublin, and by travel upon the continent. He arrived at Boston, 
in October, 1635, with authority to make a settlement in Connecti- 
cut, and the next month despatched a number of persons to build a 
fort at Saybrook. He was chosen Governor in 1657, and again in 
1659, and from that period he was annually re-elected till his death. 
In 1661, he went to England, and procured a charter, incorporating 
Connecticut and New-Haven into one colony. He died at Boston, 
April 5, 1676, in the 71st year of his age. He possessed a rich va- 
riety of knowledge, and was particularly skilled in chemistry and 
physic. His valuable qualities as a gentleman, a christian, a philoso- 
pher, and a magistrate, secured to him universal respect." 



HOGEll WILLIAMS. '21)7 

''iVcr. 22, 4, 45, {so calkcl.f 
'■' Sir, 
" Best salutations, &c. William Cheesbrough, now 
come ill, shall be readily assisted, for yours and his 
own sake. Major Bourne is come in. I have, by Provi- 
dence, seen divers papers, (returning now yours thank- 
fully,) which are snatched from me again. I have, there- 
fore, been bold to send you the Medulla and the Magnalia 
Dei. Pardon me, if I request you, in my name, to trans- 
fer the paper to Captain Mason, who saith he loves me, 
God is love ; in him only 1 desire to be yours ever, 

"ROGER WILLIAMS. 

" Loving salutes to your dearest and kind sister. 

"I hav^ been very sick of cold and fever, but God hath 
been gracious to me. I am not yet resolved of a course 
for my daughter. If your powder, with directions, might 
be sent without trouble, I should first wait upon God in 
that Vv ay : however, it is best to wait on him. If the in- 
gredients be costly, I shall thankfully account. I have 
books that prescribe powders, &c. but yours is probatum in 
this country.'' 

We know little of the condition of Providence at this 
time. We may presume, however, that it continued to 
flourish. It is sts,ted, that about this period, there were, 
in Providence and its vicinity, one hundred and one men, 
fit to bear arms.t This fact indicates a large increase of 
population, in a period of less than ten years. 

After a considerable lapse of time, the inhabitants of 
Providence, Portsmouth, Newport, and Warwick, agreed 
on a form of civil government. This form, says Mr. 
Backus, provided for the election of " a President and four 
Assistants annually, who had the executive power, were 
judges in the courts of law and kept the peace. An As- 

* Mr. Williams commonly employed the numerical mode of re- 
ferring to the month and day of the week. He usually added to the 
date the words (so called) or (ut vulgo), intimating some dissent 
from the common computation of time ; but what iiis own views 
were does not appear. The pertinacity with which he adhered to 
this practice is characteristic of his punctilious regard to trifles, when 
he thought truth was concerned. 

t Holmes, vol. i. p. 279. 



208 



MEMOIR OP 



sembly, of six commissioners, or representatives, from each 
town, made laws, and ordered their general affairs ; but their 
laws must be sent to every town, to be deliberately consid- 
ered in their town meetings, from whence the clerk was to 
send an account of their votes to the General Recorder ; 
and, if the majority of the towns approved the law, it was 
confirmed, if not, it was disannulled. The Assembly 
chose yearly a Treasurer and a General Recorder and Gen- 
eral Sergeant, which are only other names for a Secretary 
and Sheriff. In each town, six persons were yearly chosen, 
who were called the Town Council, who had the powers 
of a Court of Probate, of granting licenses to inn-keepers 
and retailers, and the care of the poor." 

The first General Assembly met at Portsmouth, May 19, 
1647, when John Coggshall was chosen President, Roger 
Williams assistant for Providence, John Sanford for Ports- 
mouth, William Coddington for Newport, and Randall 
Holden for Warwick. William Dyer was chosen Record- 
er. They agreed upon a body of laws, chiefly taken from 
the laws of England, with the addition of a few suited to 
their particular circumstances. In the introduction of this 
code, the form of government established is called " demo- 
cratical, that is to say, a government held by the free and 
voluntary consent of all, or the greater part of the free in- 
habitants." 

The code, which contains nothing except civil regula- 
tions, concludes thus : " Otherwise than thus, what is here- 
in forbidden, all men may walk as their consciences per- 
suade them, every one in the name of his God. And let 
the lambs of the Most High walk, in this colony, without 
molestation, in the name of Jehovah, their God, forever 
and ever." This noble principle was thus established, as 
one of the fundamental laws, at the first Assembly under 
the charter. It is indigenous to the Rhode-Island soil, and 
is the glory of the state. 

Mr. Williams had a large share in thus organizing the 
government. His services were gratefully recognized by 
the Assembly, who, at their first session, adopted the fol- 
lowing resolution :* 

" A vote passed, granting Mr. Williams " leave to suffer a native 
to kill fowl at Narraganset, and to sell a little wine or strong waters 
to some natives in sickness." 



R O c; E 11 WILLI A M S. '209 

" That forasmuch as Mr. Roger Williams hath taken 
great pains, and expended much time, in obtaining the 
charter for this province, of our noble Lords and Governors, 
be it enacted and established, that, in regard to his so great 
trouble, charges and good endeavors, we do freely give and 
grant unto the said Mr. Roger Williams an hundred pounds, 
to be levied out of the three towns, viz.: fifty pounds out of 
Newport, thirty pounds of Portsmouth, twenty pounds out 
of Providence; which rate is to be levied and paid in by 
the last of November." Backus, vol. i. p. 199. 

This grant of one hundred pouncls was voted, but for 
some reason, Mr. Williams never received it all.* It was, 
undoubtedly, a very inadequate compensation for his toils 
and expenses, in procuring the charter. 

The following very characteristic letter belongs here. 
The seal is a rude representation of a tulip, or other flower^ 
the impression sunk, and not raised : 

" For his worshipful, and his much honored, kind friend, 
Mr. John Winthrop, at Nameaug, these. 

'' Cawccaomsqussick, 28, 3, 47, [so called.) 
" Worthy Sir, 

" Loving respects and salutations to your kind self and 
your kindest companion. Some while since, you desired a 
word of direction about the hay seed. I desired my broth- 
er to collect his own and other neighbors' observations, 
about it, which (with his respects presented) amounts to 
this. 

" First, usually three bushels seed to one acre land. 

'"■ 2, It hath been known to spread, to mat, &/C. the In- 
dian hills being only scraped or levelled, • 

" 3. This may be done at any time of the year, but the 
sooner the better. 

"4. It is best to sovv^ it upon a rain preceding. 

"5. Some say let the ripe grass stand until it seed, and 

* In some considerations respecting rates, written in 1681, Mr- 
Williams says : " No charters are obtained without great suit, favor, 
or charges. Our first cost one hundred pounds, (though I never re- 
ceived it all.) our second about a thousand, Connecticut about six 
thousand." Mr. Williams was afterwards accused by Mr. Codding- 
ton, as a hireling, who, for the sake of money, went to England lor 
the charter ! See Coddington's letter, at the end of New-England 
Firebrand Quenched. 



210 MEMOIR OP 

the wind disperse it (susque deque) up and down, for it is 
of that thriving and homogeneal nature with the earth, 
that the very dung of cattle that feeds on it will produce the 
grain. 

"6. The offs, which can hardly be severed from the 
seed, hath the same productive faculty. 

*' 7. Sow it not in an orchard, near fruit trees, for it will 
steal, and rob the trees, &c. 

"Sir: Concerning Indian aifairs, reports are various; 
lies are frequent. Private interests, both with Indians and 
English, are many ; yet these things you may and must do. 
First, kiss truth where you evidently, upon your soul, see 
it. 2. Advance justice, though upon a child's eyes. 3. 
Seek and make peace, if possible, with all men. 4. Se- 
cure your own life from a revengeful, malicious arrow or 
hatchet. I have been in danger of them, and delivered yet 
from them ; blessed be his holy name, in whom I desire to 
be 

" Your worship's, in all unfeigned 
" respects and love, 

"ROGER WILLIAMS." 

The following letter relates, probably, to the collection 
of the wampum to be paid to the commissioners, by the 
Narragansets, in accordance with the treaty. 

" Cawcawmsqussick, 20, 6, 47, {so called.) 
" Sir, 
" Due respects presented, ^c. I am importuned by 
Ninigret,* in express words, to present his respects and 
love to your honored father, and to the honored President 
of the commissioners, giving great thanks for the great fa- 
vor and kindness showed him. Withal, he prays you ear- 
nestly to present his humble suit, that since he, by reason 
of his travel and illness, can, as yet, get no further towards 
his own home, and finds he must have much work with the 
natives of these parts, before he repair home, and time to 

* A sachem of the Nianticks, a branch of the Narraganset tribe. 
Ninigret's principal residence, and the centre of his dominions, w^as 
at Wekapaug, now Westerly, Rhode-Island. It was formerly a part 
of Stonington, Connecticut. Thatcher's Indian Biography, vol. i. 
p. 212. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 211 

spend exceeding fast, it may be accounted no breach of 
faithfulness of his promise, if he finish the contribution he 
is now about, within a few days after the punctual time. 
The other sachems, upon agitations, have promised their 
utmost concurrence, to finish all within a month from the 
day of his promise, which time he earnestly requests may 
be assented to, hoping to make payment before, but not 
questioning by the expiration of that time. By this bearer, 
he humbly prays a word of answer, that, with the more 
cheerful concurrence of the other sachems, (who join with 
him in this request,) he may be the more cheerful in the 
work. Sir, I discern nothing but reality and reason in his 
request ; otherwise, I should not dare to molest you, or 
those honored persons whom it concerns; to whom, with 
my humble respects, and to yourself presented, beseeching 
the Most High to be your portion, I rest, 
" Your worship's unworthy 

'^ ROGER WILLIAMS. 

" Pesickosh desired me to present his great thanks for 
his child. 

" Sir : Your man is with me at present writing, well, 
this last of the week, and will be going instantly. Hum- 
ble thanks for the sight of papers from England. The sea 
will be the sea till it be no more. Revel. 2L 

" Respects to your dearest." 

The following agreement, written, evidently, by Mr. 
Williams, and signed by himself and several of the citizens 
of Providence, is a proof of his pacific principles, and of 
his desire for the peace and welfare of the colony : 

" Considering the great mercy afforded unto us, in this 
liberty thus to meet together, being denied to many of our 
countrymen in most parts, especially in our poor native 
country, now deploring their distressed condition in most 
sad and bloody calamities : That ingratitude and disac- 
knowledgments for favors received, are just causes for the 
deprivation of them, together with home divisions and home 
conspiracies, the ruination of families, towns and coun- 
tries. Moreover, the many plots and present endeavors, 
at home and abroad, not only to disturb our peace and lib- 
erties, but utterly to root up both root and branch of this 



OJ2 



MEMOIR OP 



our being ; that government held forth through love, union 
and order, although by few in number and mean in condi- 
tion, yet (by experience) hath withstood and overcome 
mighty opposers ; and, above all, the several unexpected 
deliverances of this poor plantation, by that mighty Provi- 
dence who is still able to deliver us, through love, union 
and order. Therefore, being sensible of these great and 
weighty premises, and now met together to consult about 
our peace and liberty, whereby our families and posterity 
may still enjoy these favors ; and that we may publicly de- 
clare unto all the free discharge of all our consciences and 
duties, whereby it may appear upon record that we are not 
wilfully opposite, nor careless and senseless, and thereby 
the means of our own and others' ruin and destruction ; — 
and especially in testimony of our fidelity and cordial affec- 
tion unto one another here present, that so there may be a 
current placable proceeding, we do faithfully and unanimous- 
ly, by this our subscription, promise unto each other to keep 
unto these ensuing particulars : First, that the foundation 
in love may appear among us, what causes of difference 
have heretofore been given, either by word or misbehavior, 
in public or private, concerning particular or general af- 
fairs, by any of us here present, not to mention or repeat 
them in the assembly, but that love shall cover the multi- 
tude of them in the grave of oblivion. Secondly, that union 
may proceed from love, we do promise to keep constant 
unto those several engagements made by us, both unto our 
town and colony, and that, to the uttermost of our powers 
and abilities to maintain our lawful rights and privileges, 
and to uphold the government of this plantation. Also, 
that love may appear in union, we desire to abandon all 
causeless fears and jealousies of one another, only aiming 
at the general and particular peace and union of this town 
and colony. Lastly, for our more orderly proceeding in 
this assembly, whereby love and union may appear in order, 
if in our consultations differences in judgment shall arise, 
then moderately in order, through argumentation, to agitate 
the same ; considering the cause, how far it may be hurt- 
ful, or conducing unto our union, peace and liberty, and 
accordingly act, not after the will or person of any, but 
unto the justice and righteousness of the cause. Again, 
if such cause shall be presented, wherein such difficulties 



R O C. E R W I f, I, I A Al S„ '21 '5 

shall appear, that evident arguments cannot be given for 
present satisfaction, but that either town or colony, or both, 
shall suffer, then to take into consideration a speech of a 
beloved friend, " better to suffer an inconvenience than a 
mischief," better to suspend with a loss that may be incon- 
venient, than to be totally disunited and bereaved of all 
rights and liberties, Vv^hich will be a mischief indeed. 
Moreover, that offences and distractions may be prevented, 
that so the current of business may peaceably proceed in 
this assembly, we do faithfully promise to carry ourselves, 
in words and behavior, so moderately and orderly as the 
cause shall permit ; and if any of us shall fly out in pro- 
voking, scurrilous, exorbitant speeches, and unsuitable 
behavior, that he or they so doing shall be publicly declar- 
ed, branded, and noted upon record, to be a covenant vio- 
lator, and disturber of the union, peace and liberty of this 
plantation. We do here subscribe, without partiality. 
Dated December, 1647. 

Robert Williams, William Wickenden, 

Roger Williams, John Tripp, 

John Smith, Thomas Hopkins, 

Hugh Bewit, William Hawkins." 

It is a proof, that Mr. Williams was not a very ambitious 
man, that he put himself entirely on a level with his fellow 
citizens, and was willing to serve the colony in the subor- 
dinate situation of an assistant. He was entitled, from his 
character and services, to be the first President ; but he 
was, doubtless, disposed to yield his own claims, to concili- 
ate the other towns. His services, as a peace-maker, were 
often needed. 

It could scarcely be expected, that towns, composed of 
so many discordant materials, would coalesce quietly in one 
government. The principle on which the colony was found- 
ed, made it the resort of many uneasy spirits, who occasioned 
difficulties which disturbed its peace, and brought unde- 
served odium on the better portion of the inhabitants. 

In May, 1648, Mr. Coddington was elected President, 
and Jeremiah Cla)-ke, Roger Williams, William Baulstone, 
and John Smith, Assistants ; Philip Sherman, Recorder ; 
and Alexander Partridge, General Sergeant. 

In September following, Mr. Coddington and Mr. Part- 
19 



214 MEA[0 1R OF 

ridge applied, in person, to the commissioners of the united 
colonies, requesting that the island of Rhode-Island might 
be received as a member of the league, alleging it to be the 
desire of a majority of the inhabitants. But the commis- 
sioners refused to admit them, unless the island were placed 
under the jurisdiction of Plymouth. It was a happy event 
for Rhode-Island, that this request was refused, for had it 
been granted, the eflfect might have been the separation of 
the island from the rest of the colony. 

In this posture of affairs, Mr. Williams again tried his in- 
fluence as a peace-maker. In August, 1648, he addressed 
the following letter to the town of Providence : 

" Worthy friends, that ourselves and all men are apt and 
prone to differ, it is no new thing. In all former ages, in 
all parts of the world, in these parts, and in our dear native 
country and mournful state of England, that either part or 
party is most right in his own eyes, his cause right, his 
carriage right, his arguments right, his answers right, is as 
wofully and constantly true as the former. And experience 
tells us, that when the God of peace hath taken peace from 
the earth, one spark of action, word or carriage is too power- 
ful to kindle such a fire as burns up towns, cities, armies, 
navies, nations and kingdoms. And since, dear friends, it 
is an honor for men to cease from strife ; since the life of 
love is sweet, and union is as strong as sweet ; and since 
you have been lately pleased to call me to some public ser- 
vice and my soul hath been long musing how I might bring 
water to quench, and not oil or fuel to the flame, I am now 
humbly bold to beseech you, by all those comforts of earth 
and heaven which a placable and peaceable spirit will bring 
to you, and by all those dreadful alarms and warnings, either 
amongst ourselves, in deaths and sicknesses, or abroad in 
the raging calamities of the sword, death and pestilence ; I 
say humbly and earnestly beseech you to be willing to be 
pacifiable, willing to be reconcilable, willing to be sociable, 
and to listen to the (I hope not unreasonable) motion fol- 
lowing : To try out matters by disputes and writings, is 
sometimes endless ; to try out arguments by arms and 
swords, is cruel and merciless ; to trouble the state and 
Lords of England, is most unreasonable, most chargeable; 
to trouble our neighbors of other colonies, seems neither 
safe nor honorable. Methinks, dear friends, the colony now 



RO(iEK WILLIAMS. 215 

looks with the torn face of two parties, and that the greater 
number of Portsmouth, with other loving friends adhering 
to them, appear as one grieved party ; the other three towns, 
or greater part of them, appear to be another: Let each 
party choose and nominate three ; Portsmouth and friends 
adhering three, the other party three, one out of each town ; 
let authority be given to them to examine every public dif- 
ference, grievance and obstruction of justice, peace and 
common safety : let them, by one final sentence of all or 
the greater part of them, end all, and set the whole into an 
unanimous posture and order, and let them set a censure 
upon any that shall oppose their sentence. One log, with- 
out your gentle help, I cannot stir ; it is this : How shall 
the minds of the tov^ns be known! How shall the persons 
chosen be called ? Time and place appointed in any expe- 
dition 1 For myself I can thankfully embrace the help of 
Mr. Coddington or Mr. Clarke, joined or apart, but how 
many are there who will attend, (as our distempers are) to 
neither? It is, gentlemen, in the power of the body to re- 
quire the help of any of her members, and both King and 
Parliament plead, that in extraordinary cases they have 
been forced to extraordinary ways for common safety. Let 
me be friendly construed, if (for expedition) I am bold to 
be too forward in this service, and to say, that if within 
twenty days of the date hereof, you please to send to my 
house, at Providence, the name of him whom you please to 
nominate, at your desire I will acquaint all the persons 
chosen with place and time, unto which in your name I 
shall desire their meeting within ten days, or thereabouts, 
after the receipt of your letter. I am your mournful and 
unworthy ROGER WILLIAMS." 

" This address," says Mr. Backus, " had such an effect, 
that Mr. Williams was received to act as President of the 
colony, till their election at Warwick, May 22, 1649." 

The following letter to Mr. Winthrop, throws some light 
on the state of things at that time : 

"For my much honored, kind friend, Mr. John Winthrop, 
at his house, at Nameug, these. 

" Cawcmvmsqussick, 23, 7, 48, {so called.) 
" Kind Sir, 
" Best salutations to your dear selves and loving sister. 



216 MEftlOIll OF 

I am bold and yet glad to trouble you, that by this occasion 
I may hear of your welfare. Capt. Mason lately requested 
me to forbid the Narragansets to hunt at Pequod, and to as- 
sure them of his visiting of them if they so did. I have 
written now an answer, which I am bold to request you to 
send at your next opportunity. Two days since I was at 
Providence, and then Mr. Brown was not returned, only he 
had wrote home some angry passage against the Narra- 
gansets, who are nov/ in expectation of some assault from 
the English. Sir, wliether it please God to visit us with 
peace or \va.r, in life and death I desire to be 
" Yours ever in Christ Jesus, 

"ROGER WILLIAMS. 

" Sir, our neighbors Mr. Coddington and Capt. Partridge, 
ten days since, returned from Plymouth with propositions 
for Rhode-Island to subject to Plymouth ; to which himself 
and Portsmouth incline ; our other three towns decline, and 
Mr. Holden and Mr. Warner, of Warwick, came from 
thence also, and they say, gave satisfaction why they dare 
not (the other three tovv^ns) depart from the charter. Sir, 
in this division of our neighbors, I have kept myself unen- 
gaged, and presented motions of pacification, amongst 
which I was bold to propose a reference to your worthy 
self and some other friend to be chosen ; our town yields 
to it, and Mr. Boston (though opposite) and possibly you 
may have the trouble and honor of a peace-maker. 

" Sir, pray seal the enclosed." 

It appears by this letter, and by other evidence, that 
Plymouth was desirous to add the beautiful island to her 
territory. Three years before, she claimed it as belonging 
to her jurisdiction ; and Massachusetts insisted on her title 
to the allegiance of the inhabitants of Pawtuxet and War- 
wick.* Winthrop says, under the date of May, 1645 :t 



* Backus, vol. i. p. 204, i'cc. 

t Journal, vol. ii. 2'20. Mr. Savage says, in a note, '• I rejoice in 
the defeat of this futile claim by Plymouth, and equally rejoice in 
the ill success of the attempt by our own people." 

We may appropriately introduce here a remarkable document, 
found in the Massachusetts R,ccords, vol. 3, p. 47: 

" Sir, we received lately out of England a charter from the au- 
thority of the HigJi Court of Farliament, bearing- date 10 December, 
1643; whereby tlie Narraganset Bay, and a certain tract of land 



ROGER W I L L I A M S. 217 

" The government of Plymouth sent one of their magis- 
trates, Mr. Brown, to Aquetneck island, to forbid Mr. Wil- 
liams, &c. to exercise any of their pretended authority 
upon the island, claiming it to be within their jurisdiction. 
Our Court also sent to forbid them to exercise any authority 
within that part of our jurisdiction at Pawtuxet and Shaw- 
omet, and although they had boasted to do great matters 
there, by virtue of their charter, yet they dared not to 
attempt any thing." 

Connecticut afterwards laid claim to a part of the western 
territory of Rhode-Island. Thus was the little colony 
pressed on each side by her more powerful neighbors, who 



wherein Providence and the Island of Aquetneck are included, 
which we thouglit fit to give you and other of our countrymen in 
those parts notice of, thatyournay forbear to exercise any jurisdiction 
therein, otherwise to appear at our next General Court, to be holden 
the first fourth day of the eighth month, to show by what riglit you 
claim any such jurisdiction, for v.'hich purpose yourself and others, 
your neighbors, shall have free liberty to com.e, stay and sojourn, as 
the occasion of the said business rnay require. 

'• Dated at Boston, in the Massachusetts, 27th 6mo. 1645 

'■' To Mr. Roger Williams, of Providence. By order of the Council. 
INCREASE NOWELL, Secretary." 

No notice of this charter has been found in Winthrop, Hutchinson, 
or Holmes' Annals. Mr. Williams, in his letter to Major Mason, 
says : 

" Some time after the Pequod war, and our charter from the Par- 
liament, the government of Massachusetts wrote to mj'^self (then 
chief officer in this colony) of their receiving of a patent from the 
Parliament for these vacant lands, as an addition to the Massachusetts , 
&c. and thereupon requiring me to exercise no more authority, &.c. 
for they wrote, their charter was granted some weeks before curs. 
I returned what I believed righteous and weighty to the hands of 
my true friend, Mr. Winthrop, the first mover of my coming into 
these parts, and to that answer of mine I never received the least 
reply ; only it is certain, that at Mr. Gorton's complaint against the 
Massachusetts, the Lord High Admiral, President, said openly, in a 
full meeting of the Commissioners, that he knew no other charter for 
these parts than what Mr. Williams had obtained, and he was sure 
that charter, which the Massachusetts Englishmen pretended, had 
never passed the table." 

This whole transaction is somewhat mysterious. The rulers in 
Massachusetts were too upright to assert the existence of such a 
document, if tliej' had it not in their possession. They were too 
honest and too politic to forge one, the spuriousness of which could 
easily be detected. There was, undoubtedly, some mistake, and the 
silence of the historians corroborates the representation given above 
by Mr. W^illiams. 

19* 



218 M E M O I 11 OF 

would gladly have enacted, at that early day, the same 
scene which was long afterwards presented m Poland, 
though the wrong would certainly have been less flagrant, 
and the motive less criminal. Thanks to the protection of 
God, and to the prudent firmness of Mr. Williams and others, 
the colony escaped all the designs of her neighbors, and 
has continued till this day, small in territory, but strong in 
her love of freedom, and consistent in her maintenance of 
the principles of her founder. 

The Indians again disturbed the colonies. " In August, 
1648," says Mr. Backus,* " about one thousand Indians 
from various parts were collected in Connecticut, with three 
hundred guns among them, and it was reported that they 
were hired by the Narragansets to fight with Uncas. The 
magistrates of Hartford sent three horsemen to inquire what 
they designed, and to let them know, that if they made war 
with him, the English must defend him, upon which they 
dispersed. When the commissioners met at Plymouth the 
next month, they ordered four men to be^ent to the Narra- 
gansets, with instructions how to treat with them, both con- 
cerning their hiring other Indians to war upon Uncas, and 
also about the tribute of wampum that was behind. Cap- 
tain Atherton and Captain Prichard undertook the service, 
and going to Mr. Williams, they procured the sachems to 
be sent for, but they, hearing that many horsemen were 
come to take them, shifted for themselves. Passacus fled 
to Rhode-Island, but soon after, they were, by Mr. Wil- 
liams' means, delivered of their fears, and came to the mes- 
sengers as they were desired, and denied their hiring the 
Mohawks to war against Uncas, though they owned that 
they had sent them a present." 

The following letters to Mr. Winthrop, relating to the 
concerns of the Indians, with occasional references to the 
important events which were then transpiring in England, 
may be properly introduced here : 

" For his much honored and beloved Mr. John Winthrop, 
at Nameug. 

" Caivcawmsqussick, 10, 8, 48, {so called.) 
" Sir, 
" Best salutations to your dear selves and loving sis- 

^ Backus, vol. i. p. 194-^. 



llOCiEll WILLIAMS. 219 

ter. In my last I intimated a promise of presenting you 
with what here passeth. Captain Atherton, Captain Prich- 
ard, Richard Wood and Strong Tuchell, have been with 
me (as also Wm. Arnold, instead of his son Benedict, who 
withdrew himself, though sent unto,) these six or seven days. 
They were at Niantick two nights. Captain Atherton pur- 
posed to visit you, but they appointing their meeting with 
all the sachems at my house, they came back ; and this 
morning, (the fourth day of the week,) they are departed 
with good content toward the Bay. From the commis- 
sioners they brought several articles, but the main were 
three ; concerning the Mohawks, &c. ; 2d, the payment ; 
3d, Uncas' future safety. To the first, they sent answer 
(and that they confirmed with many asseverations, and 
one of them voluntarily took the Englishmen's God to wit- 
ness) that they gave not a penny to hire the Mohawks 
against the Mohegans, but that it was wholly wrought by 
Wussoonkquassin, (which they discovered as a secret) who 
being bound by Uncas, and Wuttouwuttauoum, Uncas his 
cousin, having attempted to shoot a Mohawk sachem at 
that time, resolved with the Mohawks (to whom he also 
gave peag) to take revenge upon Uncas ; Wussoonkquassin 
sent them word and desired peag of them in the spring, but 
they profess they consented not, nor sent not a penny, af- 
terwards they sent Waupinhommin up to inquire to Paw- 
catuck and however they have given some of the Mohe- 
gans peag this year, (as they have always done) yet they 
say they are clear from giving a penny in hire, &c. They 
confess their enmity against Uncas, and they (to the 2d) 
will not rest until they have finished their payments, that 
they may present their complaints against Uncas, who (they 
say) and other Indians, within these three years, have com- 
mitted thirteen murders with impunity, being out of their 
reach in the English protection. This last year they plead- 
ed they were near starved, and, therefore, sent but a small 
quantity. Now they promise, upon return of their men 
from hunting this winter, to make a contribution, the next 
spring another, and so according as they can draw the peo- 
ple to it, will not cease to furnish, and if they die, their 
children shall fulfil, and that it is their sore grief, &c. with , 
much to this purpose. For Uncas they profess neither di- 
rectly nor indirectly, to have to do with him, yet hope the 



^20 ^1 E M () I R OV 

English will not deal partially \yith him. They desired the 
English receipt of their peag ; I produced the note you sent 
me, which, because it was not signed with your father's hand 
or the Treasurer's, <fcc. the messengers promised to send 
them one from the Bay, Ninigret, made great lamentation 
that you had entertained hard thoughts of him in this busi- 
ness', and all the sachems here professed their sorrow and that 
you had hearkened to Wequashcook, who they say never 
contributed nor joined in the Pequod wars, and now flat- 
ters to draw his neck out of the payments to the English. 
They hope you will not countenance him to rob Ninigret 
of those hunting places which the commissioners gave him 
leave to make use of, and he with the English had fought 
for with the expense of much treasure and hazard of his 
life. They desire that he may and Causasenamon and the 
rest of the Pequods, be as your little dogs, but not as your 
confederates, which they say is unworthy yourself, &:.c. 
Sir, I perceive the English about the Bay inquire after new 
places. Captain Atherton prays me shortly to convey a 
letter to 30U. I forgot one passage that the sachems dis- 
covered, that Wussoonkquassin gave peag to the Mohawks 
to retreat. It seems they are (Switzer like) mercenary, and 
were hired on and off; these sachems I believe desire cor- 
dially to hold friendship with both the English and the Mo- 
hawks together ; I am confident (whether they lie or not, 
about Wussoonkquassin) that they never intended hurt 
against the English nor yourself and yours especially, to 
whom they profess great respect, and jointly they desire that 
Wequashcook may come back to Connecticut from whence 
he went, for if he join with Uncas they suspect he will 
secretly be a means of some of their deaths. Lastly, whereas 
they heard that the M'omen with you were something fear- 
ful, Ninigret prays Mrs. Winthrop to be assured, that there 
never was, nor never shall be, to his knowledge, the least 
offence given to her or her neighbors, by any of his (though 
he hath learnt it partly by your just abhorring of Uncas his 
outrageous carriage among you, and of which I have not 
softly told these messengers and the admired partiality in 
the case.) For a token of his fidelity to Mrs. Winthrop, 
Ninigret he prays me to write, that all the women of his 
town shall present Mrs. Winthrop with a present of corn at 
Pawcatuck, if she please to send in any conveyance to Paw- 
catuck for it. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 221 

" Sir, to gratify them, I am thus bold with you, and de- 
siring your eternal peace, I rest 

" Your worship's unworthy 

/'ROGER WILLIAMS. 
" Sir, I formerly wrote to you and now still crave your 
help with Wequashcook, who keeps basely from me for 
five or six coats, and can neither get peag nor cloth." 

" For his much honored and beloved Mr. John Winthrop, 
at Nameug. 

" Ca?vcawmsqifssick, 7, 9, 48. 
" Kind Sir, 

" Best salutations, &c. 1 am requested by letter of 
Captain Atherton, to certify what I can advise about 
Block-Island, whether it might be had of the natives, 
for divers of the English (it seems to my conjecture) upon 
some agitations at the last Court, have thoughts this way. 
Sir, because God hath pitched your tent these ways, and 
you know much among the natives of these parts, I judged 
it not unfit to pray you help me with a word of your in- 
formation, before I v.rite what otherwise I can, from the 
barbarians. The counsels of the Most High are deep con- 
cerning us poor grasshoppers, hopping and skipping from 
branch to twig in this vale of tears. Wm. Peacock hath had 
a very heavy task in carrying Joseph with cattle from you ; 
six or seven days and nights the poor fellow was seeking 
them (being lost and scattered from Niantick.) Then he 
brought six to my house, four being finally lost ; I took 
what pains I could to get them sought again, and three I 
hear are found, after which Wm. Peacock is now out, and 
I look for him this night with those three; Ninigretdid his 
part honestly, but the youths and boys thereabouts (by some 
occasion hallooing) the cattle thence took the woods. Jo- 
seph Wild hath written to me, and I acquaint him with the 
cause, that one man alone cannot well drive cattle amongst 
barbarians, especially without an Indian guide. It were 
exceeding well that three or four poles were enclosed at 
Niantick, to keep cattle there at night, for if God vouchsafe 
peace and plantations (prosperity) there is great needs of it 
" Sir, I desire to be your worship's unfeigned, 

"ROGER WILLIAMS." 



222 MEMOIR OF 

" Nor* 
"Sir, 

*' Loving respects to yourself and dearest, and Mrs. 
Lake, premised. Two days since, Ninigret came to me and 
requested me to write two letters ; the one, in answer to 
Captain Atherton's motion for some English planting on 
Block-Island, and on a neck at Niantick ; the other, to 
yourself, in which protesting his innocence as to the death 
of his son-in-law, with which Uncas and the Pequods charge 
him. He prays you (as of yourself) to signify (as much as 
you can) items to the Pequods, that they be quiet and at- 
tempt nothing (at least, treacherously,) against him, which 
he suspects, from words from Uncas, that it will be pleasing 
to the English. He prays you also to be mindful of en- 
deavoring to remove Wequashcook, so constant a provoca- 
tion before him ; and, at present, he prays you to send for 
some skins, which lately, as lord of the place, he hath re- 
ceived. I hope the English sachems, as I tell him, in the 
spring will hear and gratify him in his just desires, the want 
of which, I guess, is the cause that he is not free, as yet, 
for Block-Island, vSi.c. ; but expresseth much, if the Eng- 
lish do him justice against his enemies. Oh, sir, how far 
from nature is the spirit of Christ Jesus, that loves and pit- 
ies, prays for and doth good to enemies? Sir, it is like he 
will request a line of answer, which, if you please to give, 1 
pray, sir, write when either of those ships you write of are for 
England, and by which you write yourself; also where 
Mr. Throgmorton is, and whether he desires I should 
trouble you with the peag of which I wrote, which I pro- 
pose, if God please, (unless countermanded by either of you) 
to send immediately upon hearing from you. 
" Sir, yours, 

-R. W. 

" Sir, since I wrote this, it pleased God to send a Dutch- 
man for an old debt, and the same night Mr. Goodyear also, 
to whom and his wife (for her former husband) I am in- 
debted, and so was necessitated to make satisfaction to Mr. 
Goodyear also. These providences of God so falling will 
necessarily cause me to be preparing some few days more 



* This letter has no date, nor direction; but it was evidently 
written to Mr. Winthrop, not long after the preceding letter. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 223 

that peag for Mr. Throgmorton. But most certainly it, 
(God please I live) notwithstanding ways and weather, shall 
be sent ; this I write, that although Mr. Throgmorton 
should depart, or come home, yet he may presume on your 
faithfulness and love to dispose of it, as he requesteth. 
'* Sir, your unworthy, 

'' R. W. 
'' Captain Underbill, now here in a Dutch vessel, presents 
loving respects." 

" For the worshipful Mr. John Winthrop, at Nameug, 
these.* 

" Sir, 

" Respective salutations to you both, and sister Lake. 
At this instant (the first of the week, toward noon,) I re- 
ceived yours, and shall be glad, (if God will,) you may gain 
a seasonable passage by us, before the hardest of winter, 
although I cannot advise you (but to pray against winter 
flights and journies,) yet if the necessity of God's provi- 
dence so cast it, I shall be glad that we might have you 
prisoner in these parts, yet once in a few days (though in 
deep snow) here is a beaten path, &lc. Sir, Ninigret 
again importunes me to write to your father and yourself, 
about his and hunting at Pequod, that you would also be 
pleased to write to your father. I have endeavored to sat- 
isfy him what I can, and shall, yet I am willing at present 
to write to you, not so much concerning that you can fur- 
ther gratify him at this time, but that I may by this oppor- 
tunity, salute you with the tidings from the Bay the last 
night. Skipper Isaack and Moline, are come into the Bay 
with a Dutch ship, and (as it is said) have brought letters 
from the States to call home this present Dutch Governor 
to answer many complaints, both from Dutch and English, 
against him. In this ship are come English passengers, 
and they bring word of the great trials it pleaseth the Most 
High and Only Wise, to exercise both our native Eng- 
land and these parts also. 

" The Prince is said to be strong at sea, and among other 
mischiefs hath taken Mr. Trevice his ship which went from 
hence, and sent it for France, it seems their rendezvous. 

* This letter has no date. It was probably written near the first 
of December, 1648. It is endorsed, by Mr. Winthrop, " rec'd. Dec'r." 



224 



MEMOIR OF 



'' Tt is said that after Cromwell had discomfited the Welch, 
with six thousand, he was forced to encounter nineteen 
thousand Scots, of whom he took nine hundred prisoners, 
&c. Great store of Scots and Welch are sent and sold as 
slaves into other parts. Cromwell wrote to the Parliament 
that he hoped to be at Edinburgh in a few days. A com- 
mission was sent from the Parliament, to try the King in 
the Isle of Wight, lately prevented from escape. 

" The Prince of Orange and the States are falling, if 
not already fallen, into wars, which makes some of the States 
to tender Manhattoes, as place of retreat. 

" Sir, to Him in whose favor is life, I leave you, desiring 
in Him to be 

" Your worship's unworthy 

"ROGER WILLIAMS. 

" John prays you to be earnest with Mr. Hollet about his 
house, hoping to be back in a fortnight." 



" Nar. (probably toivards the close of Dec. 1648.) 
" Sir, 
" Best salutations to your worthy self and yours, premised. 
I am glad for your sake, that it hath pleased God to prevent 
your winter travel ; though I gladly, also, this last week, 
expected your passage, and being at Providence, hastened 
purposely to attend you here. Our candle burns out day and 
night, we need not hasten its end (by s waling) in unneces- 
sary miseries, unless God call us for him to suffer, whose 
our breath is, and hath promised to such as hate life for 
him, an eternal. Sir, this last week, I read an ordinance 
of both houses, (dated third month, May last) decreeing 
death to some consciences, but imprisonment to far more, 
ever (upon the point) to all but Presbyterians. We have 
a sound, that Fairfax and Cromwell are proclaimed traitors, 
but I rather credit that report, that Cromwell only was sent 
for by the Parliament, which, it seems, inclines with the 
king, and the city all against the army. The Earl of War- 
wick was gone for Holland with twenty-two ships pursuing 
the Prince. Mr. Foot and others went to Holland, (whither 
Mr.Trevice his ship was carried) and were offered the ship for 
two thousand pounds, but I cannot hear of their agreement. 



ROGER AVILLIA3IS. 225 

About forty from the Parliament went to the King, to the 
Isle of Wight, (who was lately and strangely prevented of 
escape) to treat, but could not agree upon the first, viz. 
that the King should acknowledge the beginning of the war 
to be his. Sir, this is the chief of matters told me few 
days since, by Mr. Throgmorton, who came ten days since 
from the Bay, and came well in a full laden vessel to anchor 
by Saconet rocks, but it pleased God his new cable was 
cut by the rocks, and he drove upon Rhode -Island shore, 
where it is feared the vessel is spoiled, but (through God's 
mercy) he saved his goods. Sir, Mr. Brewster, (by letter) 
requests me to convey three letters and bags of metal to 
you. I wish they may have worth in them, especially to 
draw us up to dig into the heavens for true treasure. Sir, 
(though Mr. Brewster wrote me not word of it) yet in 
private, I am bold to tell you, that I hear it hath pleased 
God greatly to afflict him in the thorns of this life. lie v.as 
intended for Virginia ; his creditors in the Bay came to 
Portsmouth and unhung his rudder, carried him to the Bay, 
where he was forced to make over all, house, land, cattle, 
and part with all to his chest. Oh how sweet is a dry 
morsel and a handful, with quietness from earth and 
heaven. Sane nescio de quo scribis furti suspecto. John 
Jones is thought here to be false or faulty. He said he was 
your servant, that you gave him 10s. in peag to bear his 
charges, which being stolen out of his pocket, he borrowed 
so much of me here in your name, promising to pay me at 
his return, being to receive money for you in the Bay ; he 
had, also, 10s. more, to buy, for me, two or three necessa- 
ries. He took 27^-. 6d. of Valentine, Mr. Smith's man, 
my neighbor at the trading house, for a drum, wliich he 
said he left at my house at Providence, which drum cost 
him 48^., and he promised to send it by an Indian, but 
refused, and offered to sell it again at Providence ; it is 
now attached. 

" Mr. Brewster requested me to pay the Bay carriers, 
which I have thus ordered, that six awl blades I pay to a 
native to carry to Ninigret, and pray you to pay six more 
to him that brings them to you. I am sorry you had no 
more corn from Ninigret, yet glad you had so much, for I 
am forced to pay 4s. the bushel for all I spend. Sir, I 
have not known the like of Indian madness. The Father 
20 



226 M E M O I R O F 

of lights cause us to bless him for and with our reason, re- 
membering Nebuchadnezzar. 

*' Sir, I desire to be yours ever in Christ Jesus, 

"ROGER WILLIAMS." 

In March, 1648-9, the town of Providence obtained a 
charter of incorporation from the General Assembly. [See 
Appendix F.] 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 227 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



Mr. Coddington — letters to John Winthrop — execution of Charles L 

The unhappy dissensions, which arose among the lead- 
ing men on Rhode-Island, were a source of disquietude to 
Mr. Williams, and of injury to the whole colony. The 
fierce controversy then maintained between the King and 
Parliament, in England, had some share in the difficulties 
between Mr. Coddington and his friends. Mr. Coddington 
was attached to the King, and was disposed to uphold his 
interest in the colony. 

The following letter to Mr. Winthrop, which is without 
date, but which appears, from internal evidence, to have 
been written about the commencement of the year 1648-9, 
refers to these dissensions, and displays the pacific temper 
of Mr. Williams : 

" For his much honored, kind friend, Mr. John Win- 
throp, at his house at Nameug, these. 

" Cawcmvnisqussick. 
" Sir, 

" Best salutations presented to you both, with humble 
desires, that, smce it pleaseth God to hinder your presence 
this way, he may please, for his infinite mercy's sake, in his 
Son's blood, to further our eternal meeting in the presence 
of him that sits upon the throne, and the Lamb forever ; 
and that the hope thereof may be living, and bring forth 
the fruits of love where it is possible, and of lamenting for 
obstructions. Sir, the affairs of our country (Vaderland, 
as the Dutch speak) would have afforded us much confer- 
ence. The merciful Lord help us to make up in prayer to 
his holy majesty, &c. Sir, for this land, our poor colony 
is in civil dissension. Their last meetings, at which I have 
not been, have fallen into factions; Mr. Coddington and 
Captain Partridge, &c. are the heads of the one, and Cap- 
tain Clarke, Mr. Easton, &c. the heads of the other fac- 
tion. I receive letters from both, inviting me, &c. but I 
resolve (if the Lord please) not to engage, unless with great 



'2'2S M E M O I II OF 

hopes of peace-making. The peace makers are sons of 
God. Our neighbors, the Narragansets, are now consult- 
ing, and making peag, to carry, within a few weeks, anoth- 
er payment. Sir, about a month since, one William 
Badger, a seaman, and now a planter at William Field's 
farm, near Providence, passed by me, travelling to the Sea- 
brook. I have received letters since from Captain Mason, 
to whom I wrote by him, and hear nothing of him. I fear 
he miscarried, for he was alone, without a guide. And, 
since I mention Captain Mason, worthy Sir, I humbly beg 
of the Father of Lights to guide you, in your converse and 
neighborhood with him. In his letters to me, he tells me 
of some extraordinary lifts against Uncas, and that he will 
favor him, but no more than religion and reason bid him. 
He promiseth to visit me, in his passage, this summer, east- 
ward, (I guess he means toward Plymouth.) I shall then 
argue, if God will, many things, and how it stands with 
religion and reason, that such a monstrous hurry and af- 
frightment should be offered to an English town, either by 
Indians or English, unpunished. Sir, you have seen many 
parts of this world's snowball, and never found aught but 
vanity and vexation. At Nameug shall you find no 
more, except in the fountain of living waters. Sir, heap 
coals of fire on Captain Mason's head; conquer evil with 
good, but be not cowardly, and overcome with any evil. 

" If you have by you the Trial of Wits, at convenience, 
spare it me a few days. However, study, as the Lord com- 
mands, your quietness, for which I shall ever pray and en- 
deavor. 

" Your worship's unfeigned, 

" ROGER WILLIAMS." 

Mr. Coddington, having failed in his endeavors to detach 
the island from the colony, and unite it to Plymouth, re- 
solved to proceed to England, and procure a separate char- 
ter for the island. The following letter, dated January 29, 
1648-9, mentions his departure, without any allusion to 
his object, which, perhaps, was not then known : 

" For his honored, kind friend, Mr. John Winthrop, 
at Nameug. 

" Cawcmvmsqussick, 29, 11, 48, (50 called.) 
'' Sir, 

" Best salutations and wishes to the Father of mercies for 



ROGi3lt \VILLlAMSi '^'20 

your worthy self, yoke fellow, sister, &c. It must be so in 
this world's sea. Sicut fluctus fluctum, sic luctus luctum 
sequitur. And every day hath his sufficiency or fulness of 
evil to all the children of the first sinful man ; no persons, 
no places, exempted from the reach of the first curse. My 
humble desire is to the most righteous and only wise Judge, 
that the wood of Christ's gallows (as in Moses' act) may 
be cast into all your and our bitter waters, that they be 
sweet and wholesome instructors of the fruits of sin, the 
sorrows of others abroad, (in our England's Aceldama,) 
our O'vvn deservings to feel upon ourselves, bodies and souls, 
(wives and children also,) not by barbarians, but devil?, 
and that eternally, sorrows inexpressible, inconceivable, 
and yet, if Christ's religion be true, unavoidable, but by 
the blood of a Savior, &c. Sir, pardon me, this is not the 
matter. Sir, your letters I speedily despatched by a mes- 
senger on purpose. For a place, I know indeed of one in 
Plymouth claim, and would specify, but that your spirit be- 
ing troubled, countermanded it again, in your postscript con- 
cerning Elderkin, whom I will, if God will, effectually labor 
with, and write the issue with speed. All our neighbors, 
the barbarians, run up and down, and consult; partly 
suspecting like dealings ; partly ready to fall upon the Mo- 
hegans, at your word, and a world of foolish agitations, I 
could trouble you with, but I told the chiefest yesterday, 
that it is not our manner to be rash, and that you will be 
silent till your father and other ancient sachems speak first, 
&/C. Sir, concerning the bags of ore, it is of Rhode-Island, 
v/here is certainly affirmed to be both gold and silver ore, 
upon trial. Mr. Coddington went to the Bay, with his 
daughter, for England, and left Captain Partridge in trust 
with all, the last week, at Newport. George Wright, alias 
Captain Wright, stabbed with a pike, Walter Lettice, at 
Newport, and is in prison ; the other, if not dead, not like 
to live. 

" Sir, yours ever, in all unfeigned respect, v^c. 

"ROGER WILLIAMS. 

" I want wax to seal, otherwise I would have expressed 
something, which I reserve till another season, if the Lord 
wiU." 

In March following, Mr. Williams again wrote to Mr. 
20* 



230 MEMOIR OF 

Winthrop. In this letter, he mentioned, that he had been 
elected Deputy President, in consequence of the absence 
of Mr. Coddington. 

" For the worshipful, his kind friend, Mr. John Win- 
throp, at Nameug. 

" CawcmDmsqussicIc, 1, 48 [so called.) 
- Sir, 

" Best respects and love presented, and thanks hearty for 
your letters, former and latter, all now received. 1 am 
again importuned by our neighbor sachems, having heard 
of Wequashcook's carrying of peag to Captain Mason, to 
pray you to inform them whether that peag be part of the 
payment ; because Wequashcook and his company refuse 
to pay. They desire me also to write to the Bay about it, 
which I defer to do until their payments go, which are 
something delayed because of the death of Ninigret's wife's 
mother, which is the same you write of, Wequashcook's 
mother, and it is now. qunnantacaun, that is, lamentation. 
Sir, since I wrote to you, our four towns met by deputies, 
six out of a town. This Court last week wrote to me in- 
formation of their choice of myself Deputy President, in 
the absence of the President, who, whether they have fixed 
on yourself, or Mr. Coddington's faction prevail to keep his 
name in, now gone for England, I cannot yet learn, but I 
have excused myself for some reasons, and I hope they 
have chosen better. 1 wrote to them about an act of ob- 
livion, which, blessed be the God of peace, they have past, 
and have appointed a Court of election in the third month, 
at Waruick. Sir, I am exceeding glad of your begin- 
nings at Pawcatuck. I pray fail not to inquire whether 
there, or from Mohegan or Connecticut, you can help me 
to one hundred bushels of Indian corn. To your dear 
yokefellow and sister respective salutation. The sun of 
righteousness graciously shine on you. I desire, unfeigned- 
ly, to be your worship's unfeigned in love, 

''R. W. 

" The sachems pray you to tell them whether their peag 
will be sold at under rates, as Pumhommin, coming two 
days since from the Bay, informs them, viz. that they must 
pay great black at thirteen to the penny, and small black 
at fifteen, and Avhite eight to the penny. I tell them the 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 231 

last year it was measured, and so word was sent to mo they 
should pay it by measure." 

Another letter, written about this time, will be inserted 
here. It treats of the usual topic, the rights and interests 
of the Indians : 

" For his honored, kind friend, Mr. John Winthrop, at 
Pequod.* 
"Sir, 

*' I am the more easily persuaded by this barbarian 
prince, Ninigret, to trouble you so often, that I may the 
oftener hear of your welfare, and at present how it pleased 
God to bring you home to yours again. Upon your word, 
Ninigret prays you to send him word, whether within ten days 
of this 5th of the week present, you will please to meet him 
at Wequatucket, so it be when Mr. Stanton is present. He 
would confer about Mr. Eliot's letter and coat, about We- 
quashcook's usurping at Pavvcatuck, about his present hunt- 
ing, about the present disposal of the Pequod fields, about 
his letters to the Bay, which, in your name, I have almost 
persuaded to suspend until the meeting of the commission- 
ers at Boston. Here is now a great hurry made by An- 
quontis, one of those petty sachems, of whom Mr. Eliot 
wrote to you and me. He hath offered great abuse to one 
of the chief, and Ninigret is now going to Conanicut about 
him, I persuade not to engage themselves, but to send him 
to the Bay with my letter. Sir, loving respects to Mrs. 
Winthrop, Mrs. Lake, whom God graciously, with your 
loving self and yours, bind up in the bundle of that life, 
which is eternal in Christ Jesus, in whom I desire to be, 
" Yours ever, 

'KROGER WILLIAMS." 

The following letter alludes to a narrow escape from 
death, which Mr. Williams met with, in his passage in a 
canoe, from Providence to Narraganset. His habitual 
piety is here exhibited in a manner the more satisfactory, be- 
cause it is evidently the unstudied emanation of his feel- 



*This letter is without a date. It was, perhaps, written in March 
or April, 1649. 



232 MtMoife 0^' 

" For the worshipful Mr. John Winthrop, at Pequod, 
'' Narraganset, 9, 3, 49, {so called.) 
'' Sir, 

** Best salutations and wishes presented to your dearest, 
with yourself, &>c. These enclosed came to my hand in 
two several letters from the Bay enclosed, your brother in Et 
letter from him, requesting my help, &-c. I have, there- 
fore, speeded them by the sachems, who will, therefore, ex^ 
pect some word of tidings from the Bay, which you may 
please to signify, in one line to me. Whatever you hear, 
or can well collect, will be any word of tidings, &c., by 
which occasion (if you have occasion) you may well re- 
scribe. Benedict was desired by the magistrates in the 
Bay to take special care to charge Wequashcook, concern- 
ing* . He hath requested this task from me, which 
this morning I purpose to do (with God's help) carefully. 
Sir, two days since, my boat not being fitted, coming from 
Providence, I was (in articulo temporis) snatched by a 
merciful, and, some say, a miraculous hand, from the jaws 
of death. The canoe being overset, some goods, to some 
value, were sunk, some whereof I hope, if God please, to 
recover. However, blessed be God, and blessed are such 
whom he correcteth and teacheth in him. Yours he gra- 
ciously make me, though unworthy. 

"ROGER WILLIAMS." 

The following letter is worthy of notice, as affording a 
slight intimation of that deficiency of paper and other ar- 
ticles, which the exclusion from intercourse with Boston 
occasioned. This letter was written on the envelope, or 
blank side, of one addressed to the writer, as is evident 
from the direction, which stood originally thus : *' To my 
much respected friend, Mr. Roger Williams." Mr. Wil- 
liams struck out his own name, and put in the place of 
it, *' John Winthrop, at Pequod," in a blacker ink. 



* " Concerning." Though the original of this letter is much torn, 
the blank following the above word is the only one which I was not 
able satisfactorily to make out or supply. The fragments of a few 
letters look more like parts of the word '■'■ Nenekunat" (Ninigret) 
than any other. Between that sachem and Wequashcook, as ap- 
pears from another letter of Roger Williams, there was a misunder- 
standing. G. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. "233 

"' To my much respected friend, Mr. John VVmthrop, at 
Pequod. 

^' 13, 3, 49, (so called.) 
" Sir, 

" Sakitations, &.c. 

*' Your last letter, which you mention, I sent by the -vay 
of the English, since I came hither from Providence I 
know of no letter of yours, that came back, as you write. 
One of mine to yourself, when you were in the Bay, was 
met by the peag messengers from the Bay, and brought by 
them again to my hand, because, as they conceived, the 
whole about Uncas, his wounding, was not yet, as then, 
known, which, at your coming hither, by the English rela- 
tion, was perfected. Tidings from Uncas are, that the Eng- 
lish come from the Bay to Hartford about Uncas, and are 
appointed to take this way, and to take Ninigret with 
them. Aquawoce (Wepiteammock) is, at the point of 
death. Expectat nos mors ubique ; cur non nos mortem? 
In life and death the Son of God shine on us. In him, 
" Yours I desire to be, ever unfeigned, 

''ROGER WILLIAMS." 

In May, 1649, the General Court met at Warwick, when 
Mr. John Smith was cliosen President, Mr. Williams hav- 
ing, as it appears declined a re-election. Among the 
assistants chosen, was Mr. Gorton. Mr. Williams was 
chosen " to take a view of the records delivered into the 
Court by Mr. William Dyre," referring, probably, to his 
complaints against Mr. Coddington. These complaints 
were again presented to the Court, but were deferred, in 
consequence, we may suppose, of the absence of Mr. Cod- 
dington. 

At this Court, a law was made, that if a President should 
be elected, and should refuse to serve, he should be fined 
ten pounds, and an assistant, in like circumstances, five 
pounds. We may infer, from this law, that the men of 
those times were either too humble to covet the honors, or 
too poor to sustain the expenses, of office. The want of 
ambition may, perhaps, be fairly considered, as the chief 
cause. It would be happy for our country, if a portion of 
this temper of our ancestors, were inherited by their de- 
scendants. The furious struggle for power is one of the 
most ominous evils in our free republic. 



234 MEMOIR O P 

The following letter from Mr. Williams was written 2 
few days after the session of the Court, It is interesting, 
tor several reasons. The excellent regulation, forbidding 
the sale or gift of spirituous liquors to the natives, except; 
at the discretion of Mr, Williams, shows, at once, the 
wise and humane policy of the colony towards the natives^ 
a:nd the confidence which they placed in him. 

This letter is remarkable, too, for the notice which it 
contains of the execution of Charles I., who, on the 30th 
of January preceding, was beheaded at Whitehall, in pur- 
suance of the sentence of his judges. That Charles had 
forfeited his crown, will scarcely be denied by any man at 
the present day, unless he be an advocate for arbitrary rule. 
That the unhappy King did not deserve to die, will now, 
perhaps, with almost equal unanimity, be maintained, ex- 
cept by those whose political principles bias their judg- 
ment, and silence the emotions of their hearts. Of the 
inexpediency of the execution, the effects are the best 
proof. The reaction, which was produced in the feelings 
of the nation, was, doubtless, one of the causes of the res- 
toration, and of the consequent evils. The letter was en- 
dorsed by Mr. Winthrop, "Mr. Williams, of the high news 
about the King.'* 

" For his honored, kind friend, Mr. John Winthrop, 
at Nameug, these. 

" Nar. 26, 3, 49, (so called,) 
'^ Sir, 

" Loving respects to your dear self, and dearest, &c. 
This last of the week, in the morning, your man and all 
his charge are come just now to me in safety. I, myself,, 
also came hither late last night, and wet, from Warwick, 
where this colony met, and upon discharge of my service, 
we chose Mr. Joseph Smith, of AVarwick, (the merchant or 
shop-keeper that lived at Boston) for this year, President. 
Some were bold (though Capt. Clarke was gone to the Bay 
and absent) to use your name, and generally applauded 
and earnestly desired, in case of any possible stretching 
our bounds to you, or your drawing near to us, though but 
to Pawcatuck. One law passed, that the natives should 
no longer abuse us, but that their black should go with us, 
as with themselves, at four per penny. All wines and strong 
waters forbidden the natives throughout the colony, only a 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 235 

privilege betrusted in my hand, to spare a little for neces- 
sities, &/C. 

" Sir, tidings are high from England ; many ships from 
many parts say, and a Bristol ship, come to the Isle of 
Shoals within a few days, confirms, that the King and many 
great Lords and Parliament men are beheaded, London 
was shut up on the day of execution, not a door to be 
opened, &c. The States of Holland and the Prince of 
Orange (forced by them) consented to proceedings. It is 
said Mr. Peters preached (after the fashion of England) 
the funeral sermon to the King, after sentence, out of the 
terrible denunciation to the King of Babylon. Esa. 14 : 
18, &c. 

*' Your letter to your brother I delivered to Mr. Gold, 
(going to Boston ;) this weather, I presume, hinders. Mr. 
Andrews, a gentleman of Warwick, told me, that he came 
from the Bay, where he heard that the Bay had proclaimed 
war with the Narragansets. I hope it is but mistaken ; 
and yet all under, and while we are under the sun, nothing 
but vanity and vexation. 

"The most glorious Sun of Righteousness shine gra- 
ciously on us. In him I desire to be. Sir, ever yours, 

" ROGER WILLIAMS." 

The following letter is, on many accounts, honorable to 
Mr. Williams. It needs no comment : 

" Cawcmvmsqussick, 13, 4, 49, (so called.) 

'' Sir, 
" Best salutations, 6lc. The last night one of Wequash- 
cook's Pequods brought me, very privately, letters from 
Capt. Mason, (and, as he said, from Uncas and Wequash- 
cook.) The letters are kind to myself, acknowledging 
loving letters (and tokens, which, upon the burning of his 
house,) he had received from me, &-c. ; but terrible to all 
these natives, especially to the sachems, and most of all, 
to Ninigret. The purport of the letters and concurrence 
of circumstances, seem to me to imply some present con- 
clusions (from Connecticut) of hostility, and I question 
whether or no present and speedy, before the meeting of 
commissioners, which I saw lately from the Court, under 
Mr. Nowell's hand, was not to be till the 7th month. The 



236 RI E ai O I K OF 

murdering of Uncas is alleged by stabbing, and since at- 
tempted by witches, &:-c. The conclusion is therefore 
ruin. The words of the letter are : ' If nothing but 
blood will satisfy them, I doubt not but they may have 
their fill ; and again, I perceive such an obstinate wilful- 
ness, joined with desperate malicious practices, that I 
think and believe they are sealed to destruction' Sir, 
there are many devices in a man's heart, but- the counsel 
of Jehovah sliall stand. If he have a holy and righteous 
purpose to make us drink of our mother's cup, the holi- 
ness, nor power, nor policy of New-England, can stop his 
hand : He be pleased to prevent it, if not to sweeten it. 

" Sir, I pray, if you have aught, signify in a line, and 
you shall not fail cf my poor papers and prayers. 
"Your unfeigned, 

"R. W. 

" Your letters and friends were here some days with me. 
This last choice at "VVarvvick (according to my soul's wish 
and endeavor) hath given me rest. Others are chosen, 
Mr. John Clarke, at Newport, to whom, and all my friends 
on the island, I wrote effectually. Thither they went. I 
have heard nothing since. If power had been with me, 
such a work of mercy, (although to strangers) I hope, by 
the Lord's assistance, shall not escape me ; and I have 
promised my assistance to Mr. Clarke and others, at New- 
port, if any blame or damage befal them from the colony 
or elsewhere. 

*' Sir, I forgot to thank you for the pamphlets, although 
(not having been lately at Providence) I have them not ; 
but I have sent for them. I have here now with me my 
eldest daughter, of seventeen. Her younger sister, of fif- 
teen, hath had nature's course before her, which she want- 
ing, a flux of rheum hath much affected her head and right 
eye ; she hath taken much physic, and been let blood, but 
yet no change. She is advised by some to the Bay. I 
pray advise me to whom you judge fittest to address unto 
of the Bay physicians. 

" Sir, I hear a smith of your town hath left you, and 
saith I sent for him. It is most untrue, though we want 
one at Providence, yet I should condemn in myself, or any, 
to invite any convenience or commodity from our friends. 
I know him not, nor ever spake (to my knowledge) about 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 237 

him. Mr. Throgmorton hath lately brought in some corn 
from Hemstead and those parts, but extraordinary dear. I 
pay him 6s. for Indian, and 8s. for wheat. These rains, if 
God please to give peace, promise hopes of plenty. 

" Two days since, letters from my brother. He saith a 
ship was come to the Bay from England. She was not 
come yet in the river. A lighter went aboard, and brought 
the confirmation of the King's death, but no other particu- 
lars. The everlasting King of kings shine on us, &c." 



21 



238 MEMOIR or 



CHAPTER XIX. 



Warwick — Mr. Williams' compensation — imprisonment of John 
Clarke and Obadiah Holmes — Mr. Coddington's separate charter- 
Mr. Williams and Mr. Clarke prepare to go to England. 

It has been seen, that aUhough Warwick was not named 
in the charter, yet that settlement, having obtained from 
England the sanction of the commissioners, had joined with 
the other towns, in forming a civil government. But a 
portion of the inhabitants of Pawtuxet, having submitted 
themselves to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, refused to 
acknowledge the authority of the charter. At the General 
Assembly, at Warwick, in May, 1649, it was "ordered, 
that a messenger be sent to Pomham and the other sachem, 
to require them to come to this Court ; and that letters 
be sent to Benedict Arnold and his father, and the rest 
of Pawtuxet, about their subjecting to this colony." They 
persisted in their refusal ; and, although the territory was 
undeniably included in the charter obtained by Mr. Wil- 
liams, yet these inhabitants of Pawtuxet and its vicinity 
continued for several years to resist the authority of the 
General Assembly of Rhode-Island, and caused much an- 
noyance to the colony. In this conduct, they were upheld 
by the government of Massachusetts. In 1650, as we are 
informed by Mr. Backus,* '' William Arnold and William 
Carpenter, instead of submitting to the government of their 
own colony, went again and entered complaints against 
some of their neighbors to the Massachusetts rulers, and 
they sent a citation to some of them to come and answer 
the same in their courts, dated from Boston, June 20, 1650, 
signed by Edward Rawson, Secretary."! 

There seems to have been much disinclination to pay 
the sum voted to Mr. Williams for his services in procur- 
ing the charter. At the General Assembly, in May, 1650, 
three years after the grant, it was found necessary to send 

** Vol. i. p. 207. t Providence Records 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 239 

a fresh order to the towns to collect and pay the sums due, 
within twenty days. This order was not entirely success- 
ful, and it is nearly certain, that the whole amount was 
never paid. It is probable, that few disputed the justice of 
the grant, and we may hope, that the unhappy jealousies 
which subsisted between individuals, and some of the towns, 
together with the poverty of the inhabitants, rather than a 
deliberate disregard of Mr. Williams' just claims, were the 
causes of the failure. But gratitude has not been the most 
conspicuous virtue, either of kings or of republics. The 
patriotic Winthrop spent his large estate, and his life, in 
the service of Massachusetts ; yet was he compelled to sub- 
mit to an impeachment, from which, however, he issued 
with a purer fame. It is a lamentable fact, that men are 
often imboldened to do, in concert, what they would not 
venture to do, in their individual capacity. They seem to 
think, that they lose their identity in a crowd, and that guilt, 
in which many share, becomes so divided and attenuated, as 
to leave a very insignificant portion to each person. Hu- 
man passions, too, are contagious, and a large assembly 
sometimes inflame each other to the perpetration of deeds, 
of which each man would, when alone, have been ashamed. 

The memorable transactions in Massachusetts, in which 
the Rev. John Clarke, Mr. Obadiah Holmes and Mr. 
John Crandall* had so melancholy a share, deserve a notice. 
They show the rigor, with which the famous law of 1644, 
levelled ostensibly against anabaptists, was executed ; and 
the special aversion which was felt towards intruders from 
Rhode-Island. 

In July, 1651, these gentlemen were deputed by the 
Baptist church in Newport, to visit William Witter, an aged 
member of that church, who resided at Lynn, a few miles 
east of Boston. Mr. Witter was an old man, and being 
unable to visit the church, he had requested an interview 
with some of his brethren. On this most Christian and in- 



* Rev. Mr. Clarke was the founder and pastor of the first Baptist 
Aihurch in Newport. Mr. Hohnes was, a short time before these 
transactions, presented by a grand jury to the General Court at 
Plymouth, because he and a few others had set up a Baptist meeting 
in Seekonk. He removed to Newport, and after Dr. Clarke's death, 
was his successor, as Pastor. He had, at the time he was imprisoned 
and whipped, a wife and eight children. 



240 MEMOIR OF 

offensive errand, the committee proceeded to Lynn. Their 
aged brother resided about two miles from the town, and the 
next day being the Sabbath, it was thought proper to spend 
it in religious worship at his house. Mr. Clarke preached 
from Rev. 3 : 10. " Because thou hast kept the word of 
my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of tempta- 
tion, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that 
dwell upon the earth." In the midst of his sermon, he was 
interrupted by two constables. Mr. Clarke thus describes 
the scene : 

" While in conscience towards God, and good will unto 
his saints, I was imparting to my companions in the house 
where I lodged, and to four or five strangers that came in 
unexpected after I had begun, opening and proving what 
is meant by the hour of temptation, what by the word of 
his patience, and their keeping it, and how he that hath 
the key of David (being the promiser) will keep those who 
keep the word of his patience, from the hour of temptation. 
While, I say, I was yet speaking, there came into the house 
where we were, two constables, who, with their clamorous 
tongues, made an interruption in my discourse, and more 
uncivilly disturbed us than the pursuivants of the old Eng- 
lish bishops were wont to do, telling us that they were come 
with authority from the magistrate to apprehend us. I then 
desired to see the authority by which they thus proceeded, 
whereupon they plucked forth their warrant, and one of 
them, with a trembling hand, (as conscious he might have 
been better employed) read it to us ; the substance whereof 
was as followeth : 

' By virtue hereof, you are required to go to the house 
of William Witter, and so to search from house to house> 
for certain erroneous persons, being strangers, and them to 
apprehend, and in safe custody to keep, and to-morrow 
morning, at eight o'clock, to bring before me. 

' ROBERT BRIDGES.' "* 

The constables carried Mr. Clarke and his companions 
to the Congregational meeting, where they were compelled 
to stay till the service was closed. Mr. Clarke then rose 
and addressed the assembly, but was speedily silenced, and 
the next day, the three heretics were committed to prison in 

* Bei,ckus, vol. i. p. 215. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 241 

Boston. A few days afterwards, they were tried, before 
the Court of Assistants, and Mr. Clarke was sentenced to 
pay a fine of twenty pounds, Mr. Holmes thirty pounds, and 
Mr. Crandall five pounds ,' or, in default of payment, each 
was to be whipped. They refused to pay the fine, for the 
plain reason, that the payment of a fine is an acknowledg- 
ment of guilt, of which they felt themselves to be innocent. 
They were accordingly committed to prison. 

On the trial, Mr. Clarke defended himself and his com- 
panions so ably, that the Court were somewhat embarrassed. 
*'At length, (says Mr. Clarke) the Governor stepped up and 
told us we had denied infant baptism, and being somewhat 
transported, told me I had deserved death, and said he 
would not have such trash brought into their jurisdiction. 
Moreover he said, ' you go up and down, and secretly in- 
sinuate into those that are weak, but you cannot maintain 
it before our ministers. You may try and dispute with 
them.' To this I had much to reply, but he commanded 
the jailer to take us away."* 

From the prison, Mr. Clarke sent to the Court a proposi- 
tion to meet with any of the ministers, and hold a public 
discussion. This proposal was at first accepted, and a day 
was fixed. But the clergy probably thought, that a public 
debate about infant baptism, with so able an antagonist, 
would be inexpedient. Mr. Clarke's fine was accordingly 
paid, without his knou^ledge or consent, and he was released 
from prison. He was anxious for an opportunity to main- 
tain, publicly, his opinions, and to vindicate his innocence. 
But he could not succeed in bringing his opponents to the 
trial of argument. Leaving, therefore, with the magistrates 
a declaration, that he would be ready, at any time, to visit 
Boston, and maintain his sentiments, he, together with Mr. 
Crandall, who was released on condition of appearing at 
the next Court, returned to Newport. 

The two following letters from Mr. Williams to Mr. Win- 
throp, were written about this time, probably in August, 
1651: 

" Sir, 
*' Loving respects to you both, with Mrs. Lake and yours. 
By this opportunity I am bold to inform you, that from the 

* Benedict, vol. i. p. 367. 
21* 



^4^ MEMOIR OP 

Bay I hear of the sentence on Mr. Clarke, to be whipt of 
pay twenty pounds, Obadiah Holmes whipt or thirty pounds, 
on John Crandall, whipt or five pounds. This bearer hears 
of no payment nor execution, but rather a demur, and some 
kind of conference. The Father of Lights graciously guide 
them and us in such paths ; for other succor than that (in 
his mouth) Christ Jesus walks not among the churches, 
(Rev. 1.) Sir, upon those provocations that lately (as in 
my last I hinted) Auguontis gave the sachems, Ninigret, 
Pitammock and Pesiccosh, went in person to their town, 
(Chaubutick) and upon Pummakommins telling the sachems 
that he was as great a sachem as they, they all fell together 
by the ears ; yet no blood spilt. The Chaubatick Indians 
send to the Bay ; they say Auguontis is sent for and Nini* 
gret, but I know no certain other than messengers passing 
to and again from Chaubatick to the Bay. Here was last 
week Mr. Sellick, of Boston, and Mr. Gardiner, a young 
merchant, to fetch my corn, and more, from Mr. Paine, of 
Seekonk ; they are bound to the French, unless diverted. 
They tell me of a ship of 300, come from Barbadoes. Mr. 
Wall, the master, stood upon his guard while he staid 
there ; he brought some passengers, former inhabitants from 
London, whose case was sad there, because of the posture 
of the island (where, as I have by letter from a godly friend 
there) they force all to swear to religion and laws. This 
Mr. Wall hath a new and great design, viz. from hence to 
the East Indies. The frigates designed for Barbadoes were 
ordered for Scilly, which they assaulted, and took forts and 
ordnance and frigates, and drove the Governor into his last 
fort. It hath pleased God to bring your ancient acquaint- 
ance and mine, Mr. Coddington, in Mr. Carwithy his ship 
of 500 ; he is made Governor of this colony for his life. 
General Cromwell was not wounded nor defeated, (as is 
said) but sick of flux and fever, and mending, and had a 
victory over the Scots. Sir, this world passeth away and 
the {e-^vi^ec) fashion, shape and form of it, only the word 
of Jehovah remains. That word literal is sweet, as it is the 
field where the mystical word or treasure, Christ Jesus, lies 
hid. 

" In Him I hope to be 

"Yours, R. W. 

" Sir, to Mr. Blindman loving salutations." 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 243 

•' For his honored, kind friend, Mr. John Winthrop, at 
Peqiiod. 
'* Sir, 

"Loving respects, &c. Yours received and the IO5. 
from your neighbor Elderkin, and letters, which shall care- 
fully be sent. I came from Providence last night, and was 
able, by God's merciful providence, so to order it, that I was 
their pilot to my house here, from whence I have provided 
a native, who, with Joseph Fosseker, I hope will bring them 
safe to you. The merciful Lord help you and me to say, as 
Solomon, all that comes is vanity : all cattle, all goods, all 
friends, all children, &.c. I met Mr. John Clarke, at Prov- 
idence, I'eccjis c carcere. There was great hammering about 
the disputation, but they could not hit, and although (my 
much lamented friend) the Governor told him, that he was 
worthy to be hanged, &c. yet he was as good as thrust out 
without pay or whipping, &c. ; but Obadiah Holmes 
remains. Mr. Carvvithy is gone with his ship to the 
eastward for masts, and returns, three weeks hence, to set 
sail for England. Sir, I have a great suit to you, that at 
your leisure you would fit and send something that you 
find suitable to these Indian bodies, in way of purge or 
vomit; as, also, some drawing plaster, and if the charge 
rise to one or two crowns, I shall thankfully send it ; and 
commending you and yours to the only great and good 
Physician,* desire. Sir, to be ever 

" Yours in Him, R. W." 

Mr. Holmes was confined in prison till September, when 
thirty stripes were inflicted on him, with such merciless 
severity, that he could not, for a considerable time, take 
any rest, except by supporting himself with his knees and 
elbows. Two individuals (John Spur and John Hazel,t) 
were imprisoned and fined for the grievous offence of ex- 
hibiting some sympathy for the sufferer. Mr. Holmes was 
released, but he continued in Massachusetts, and baptized 

* Mr. Winthrop had considerable skill in medicine. The benevo- 
lent zeal of Mr. Williams for the welfare of the Indians, shows itself 
on all occasions. 

t Mr. Hazel was an old man of threescore years. He was one of 
Mr. Holmes' brethren, from Seekonk, and had travelled fifty miles 
to visit him in prison. The old man died before he reached home. 



244 MEMOIR OF 

several individuals. Warrants were again issued to appre- 
hend him, and he returned home to his family. 

The recital of these transactions is painful, but we must 
compel ourselves to contemplate such scenes, if we would 
suitably feel the contrast between the policy of Massachu- 
setts, at that day, and the tolerant principles of Roger 
Williams. To that policy must it be ascribed, that wise 
and good men could thus treat their fellow Christians. It 
is pleasing to know, however, that this conduct was not 
unanimously approved, by those who were free from all 
suspicion of anabaptism. Sir Richard Saltonstall, one of 
the magistrates of Massachusetts, then in England, wrote 
thus to Messrs. Cotton and Wilson : 

" Reverend and dear friends, whom I unfeignedly love 
and respect : 

" It doth not a little grieve my spirit, to hear what sad 
things are reported daily of your tyranny and persecutions 
in New-England, as that you fine, whip and imprison men 
for their consciences. First, you compel such to come into 
your assemblies as you know will not join you in your wor- 
ship, and when they show their dislike thereof, or witness 
against it, then you stir up your magistrates to punish them 
for such (as you conceive) their public affronts. Truly, 
friends, this your practice of compelling any in matters of 
worship, to do that whereof they are not fully persuaded, 
is to make them sin, for so the apostle (Rom. 14 : 23) tells 
us, and many are made hypocrites thereby, conforming in 
their outward man, for fear of punishment. We pray for 
you, and wish you prosperity every way, hoping the Lord 
would have given you so much light and love there, that 
you might have been eyes to God's people here, and not to 
practise those courses in a wilderness, which you went so 
far to prevent. These rigid ways have laid you very low 
in the hearts of the saints." 

Mr. Cotton replied to this letter. After stating that 
Mr. Clarke and Mr. Holmes had offended against the " order 
and government of our churches, established, toe know, by 
God's law," he furnishes this remarkable specimen of 
sophistry : " You think, to compel men in matters of wor- 
ship is to make them sin. If the worship be lawful in itself, 
the magistrate compelling him to come to it compelleth 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 245 

him not to sin, but the sin is in his will that needs to be 
compelled to a Christian duty. If it do make men hyp- 
ocrites, yet better be hypocrites than profane persons. 
Hypocrites give God part of his dues, the outward man ; 
but the profane person giveth God neither outward nor in- 
ward man. You know not, if you think we came into this 
wilderness, to practise those courses here, which we fled 
from in England. We believe there is a vast difference 
between men's inventions and God's institutions. We fled 
from men's inventions, to which we else should have been 
compelled. We compel none to men's inventions. If our 
ways (rigid ways, as you call them,) have laid us low in 
the hearts of God's people, yea, and of the saints, (as you 
style them) we do not believe it is any part of their saint- 
ship. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, we have tolerated 
in our churches some anabaptists, some antinomians, and 
some seekers, and do so still, at this day. We are far 
from arrogating infallibility of judgment to ourselves, or 
affecting uniformity. Uniformity God never required ; in- 
fallibility he never granted us." * 

There is, in this reply, somewhat more of asperity than 
Mr. Cotton's writings usually exhibit. It is easy to per- 
ceive, that the good man's spirit was chcfld by the rebuke 
from one of his own friends. Nothing tries a man's tem- 
per more than reproof, when he is secretly convinced 
that he has done wrong, and is yet unprepared to acknowl- 
edge it. It is a sore task to defend himself, when his con- 
science is on the side of the accuser. In such a case, a 
man is apt to resort to confident and emphatic assertions, 
rather than to calm arguments. 

We have mentioned Mr. Coddington's visit to England, 
for the purpose of procuring a charter for the islands of 
Rhode-Island, Canonicut, &c. He procured from the 
Council of State, which then wielded the executive power 
in England,! a commission, dated April 3, 1651, and 



* Benedict, vol. i. p. 377. 

t Mr. Neal (vol. iv. ch. 1) says, that after the death of Charles I. 
the House of Commons assumed the government, " the House of 
Lords was voted useless, and the office of a king unnecessary, bur- 
densome and dangerous. The form of government for the future 
was declared to be a free commonwealth, the executive power lodged 
in the hands of a Council of State of forty persons, with full power 



246 MEMOIR OF 

signed by John Bradshaw, constituting Mr. Coddington 
governor of the islands, and empowering him to rule them, 
with a council of six men, nominated by the people, and 
approved by himself 

Mr. Coddington returned about the first of August, 1651. 
His new charter at once subverted the existing govern- 
ment, by severing the islands from the other towns. Much 
agitation of feeling naturally ensued. Those inhabitants 
of the islands, who were opposed to Mr. Coddington's 
measures, were alarmed at finding themselves thus sub- 
jected to his power. The towns of Warwick and Provi- 
dence were annoyed by the inhabitants of Pawtuxet, con- 
sisting of whites and Indians, who rejected the government 
of Rhode-Island, and adhered to that of Massachusetts. 
The Indians committed many depredations, and offered 
many insults, which neither the General Assembly of 

to take care of the whole administration for one year. New keepers 
of the great seal were appointed, from whom the judges received 
their commissions. The oaths of allegiance and supremacy were 
abolished, and a new one appointed, called the engagement, which 
was, to be true and faithful to the government established, without 
King or House of Peers." 

As great a change took place in ecclesiastical affairs. Episcopacy 
was abolished, by law, in 1646 ; a Directory was substituted for the 
Liturgy, a large part of the livings were distributed among the 
Presbyterian clergy, and finally, in 1649, Presbyterianism was de- 
clared, by act of Parliament, to be the established religion. The 
Presbyterians were fully as tenacious of the divine right of their 
polity as the Episcopalians were of theirs ; and Dissenters were 
treated with nearly as much rigor under the Presbyterian rule, as 
they were by the Prelates. The Presbyterians refused to grant tol- 
eration to the Independents, and insisted on their submission. A 
number of the Presbyterian ministers and elders in London publish- 
ed a piece, in 1649, " in which they represent the doctrine of univer- 
sal toleration as contrary to godliness, opening a door to libertinism 
and profaneness, and a tenet to be rejected as a soul poison." The 
ministers of Lancashire published a paper, in 1648, in which they 
remonstrated against toleration, " as putting a cup of poison into the 
hands of a child, and a sword into that of a madman ; as letting 
loose madmen, with firebrands in their hands, and appointing a city 
of refuge in men's consciences for the devil to fly to ; and instead of 
providing for tender consciences, taking away all conscience." 
Neal, vol. iii. p. 313. The Presbyterians might well dislike Crom- 
well, who curbed their intolerant spirit. They had time for reflec- 
tion, when, at the restoration, the Episcopal clergy expelled thou- 
sands of them from their livings, and treated them as they had 
treated their Independent brethren, 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 247 

Rhode-Island, nor the towns of Providence and Warwick, 
could either prevent or punish. The government of Mas- 
sachusetts, and the commissioners of the united colonies, 
refused to remedy these evils, unless Warwick would sub- 
mit to the jurisdiction of Plymouth or Massachusetts, and 
finally the commissioners advised the Plymouth colony to 
take possession of Warwick by force, if necessary. 

In this distressed state of the colony, the separation oc- 
casioned by Mr. Coddington's measures would have been 
ruinous. The only remedy was an immediate application 
to the government in England, for the repeal of Mr. Cod- 
dington's charter, and the confirmation of that obtained by 
Mr. Williams. For this purpose, Mr. John Clarke was re- 
quested by citizens of Newport and Portsmouth* to pro- 
ceed to England, as their agent. The towns of Provi- 
dence and Warwick urgently importuned Mr. Williams to 
accompany Mr. Clarke on this important business. He 
consented, though with reluctance, arising from a natural 
unwillingness to leave his large family, (now consisting of 
a wife and six children) and partly, we presume, from ina- 
bility to sustain the expense. He had not been remuner- 
ated for his former agency, and he was now, it seems, 
obliged, in order to raise funds, to sell his house at Nar- 
ragansetjf notwithstanding that some eflforts were made by 
the people of Providence and Warwick to obtain a suffi- 
cient sum by subscription. These facts we learn from the 
following letter to Mr. Winthrop, and from a letter which 
will next be quoted from William Arnold : 

'' For my honored, kind friend, Mr. John Winthrop, at 
Pequod. 

'' Nar. 6, 8, 51, {so called.) 
"Sir, 
" Once more my loving and dear respects presented to 

^Tho application was signed by sixty-five inJiabitants of Newport, 
who are said I.0 have been, at that time, ahiiost all the free male in- 
habitants. Forty-one of the inhabitants of Portsmouth signed a like 
request. Backus, vol. i. p. 274. These facts imply, that Mr. Cod- 
dington's party was not very large, and that his conduct was un- 
justifiable. 

t In a letter, written in 1677, he says, that " he gave up his trading 
house at Narraganset, when he last went to England, with one hun- 
dred pounds profit per annum * 



248 MEMOIR OF ' - 

you both, and Mrs. Lake. Being now bound, resolvedly, 
(if the Lord please) for our native country, I am not cer- 
tain whether by the way of the English, (you know the 
reason*) or by the way of the Dutch. My neighbors of 
Providence and Warwick, (whom I also lately denied) 
with importunities, have overcome me to endeavor the re- 
newing of their liberties, upon the occasion of Mr. Cod- 
dington's late grant. Upon this occasion, I have been ad- 
vised to sell, and have sold this house to Mr. Smith, my 
neighbor, who also may possibly be yours, for I hear he is 
like to have Mrs. Chester. 

" Sir, I humbly thank you for all your loving-kindnesses 
to me and mine unworthy. The Father of Mercies gra- 
ciously reward you, guide you, preserve you, save, sanctify 
and glorify you in the blood of his dear Son, in whom I 
mourn I am no more, and desire to be yours, unfeignedly 
and eternally, 

^' ROGER WILLIAMS. 

" This bearer, coming now from England, will acquaint 
you, &LC. 

" To all yours, and all my friends, my loving salutations. 
Mr. Sands, of Boston, and John Hazel, of Seekonk, are 
gone before us." 

Information of these designs was immediately communi- 
cated by William Arnold to the Governor of Massachu- 
setts. The following letter, preserved in Hutchinson's 
Collection, is worthy of perusal, both from its connection 
with Mr. Williams, and from the light which it throws on 
the state of the times. Mr. Arnold, it will be seen, was 
not disposed to look on any of the proceedings of Rhode- 
Island with a favorable eye ; and hence he accuses its in- 
habitants of hostility to the united colonies, though facts 
do not seem to sustain the charge, unless hostility was in- 
dicated by a patient endurance of wrong, and by generous 
services in time of danger. 



* This reason was, his banishment from Massachusetts. There was 
much delicacy in thus shghtly referring to a measure, in which Mr. 
Winthrop's father was, from his official relations, concerned. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 249 

Copy of a letter from Mr. William Arnold to the Gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts : 

" From Pawiuxct, this 1st day of the 7th month, 1651 . 
" Much honored, 

" I thought it my duty to give intelligence unto the much 
h-nr:?d Court, of that which I understand is now working 
heie in these parts ; so that if it be the will of God, an evil 
may be prevented, before it come to too great a head, viz : 

" Whereas Mr. Coddington has gotten a charter of 
Rhode-Island and Canonicut Island to himself, he has 
thereby broken the force of their charter, that went under 
the name of Providence, because he has gotten away the 
greater part of that colony. 

" Now these company of the Gortonists, that live at 
Shawomet, and that company of Providence, are gathering 
of <j£200, to send Mr, Roger Williams unto the Parliament, 
to get them a charter of these parts, they of Shawomet 
have given =£100 already, and there be some men of Prov- 
idence that have given c£10 and £20 a man, to help it for- 
ward with speed ; they say here is a fair inlet, and I hear 
they have said, that if the Parliament do take displeasure 
against Massachusetts, or the rest of the colonies, as they 
have done against Barbadoes and other places, then this 
will serve for an inroad to let in forces to overrun the 
whole country. 

" It is great pity, and very unfit, that such a company as 
these are, they all stand professed enemies against all the 
united colonies, that they should get a charter for so small 
a quantity of land as lieth in and about Providence, Shawo- 
met, Pawtuxet, and Coweset, all which, now Rhode-Island 
is taken out from it, is but a strip of land lying in be- 
tween the colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth and Con- 
necticut, by which means, if they should get them a char- 
ter, of it there may come some mischief and trouble upon 
the whole country, if their project be not prevented in 
time, for under the pretence of liberty of conscience, about 
these parts, there comes to live all the scum, the runaways 
of the country, which, in time, for wantof better order, may 
bring a heavy burthen upon the land, &/C, This I humbly 
commend unto the serious consideration of the much hon- 
ored Court, and rest your humble servant to command, 

'' WILLIAM ARNOLD. 
22 



2o0 MEMOIR Of* 

" They are making haste to send Mr. Williams away. 
We that live here near them, and do know the place 
and hear their words, and do take notice of their proceed- 
ing, do know more and can speak more of what may come 
to the country by their means, than the Court do yet con- 
sider of. We humbly desire God their purpose may be 
frustrated, for the country's peace. 

" I humbly desire my name may be concealed, lest 
they, hearing of what I have herein written, they will 
be enraged against me, and so will revenge themselves 
upon me. 

" Some of them of Shawomet that crieth out much 
against them which putteth people to death for witches ; 
for, say they, there be no other witches upon earth, nor 
devils, but your own pastors and ministers, and such as 
they are, &c 

" I understand that there liveth a man amongst them 
that broke prison, either at Connecticut or New-Haven ; 
he was apprehended for adultery; the woman, I hear, was 
put to death, but the man is kept here in safety, in the 
midst of the united colonies. It is time there were some 
better order taken for these parts, &c. 

" I have hired this messenger on purpose. I humbly 
desire to hear if this letter come safe to your hands." 

The town of Warwick addressed to the commissioners, 
who met at New-Haven, September 4, 1651, a letter,* in 
which they unfolded the real condition of the town, and an- 
nounced, with calm dignity, their design to appeal to the 
government of England. Mr. Arnold had written, in 
haste, as if some secret plot had been fomented; but the 
tov.'n thus gave seasonable notice to the commissioners, in 
order that the other colonies might adopt measures, if they 
pleased, to oppose and defeat this new embassy to England. 
The inhabitants of Warwick felt a confidence in the justice 
of their claims, and feared no opposition. 

This letter occasioned much debate among the commis- 
sioners. Those of Massachusetts alleged, that Plymouth 
had resigned to Massachusetts all its pretensions to War- 

"^ Backus, vol. i. p. 272. 



ROGER WILLIAMS 



251 



wick while the commissioners of Plymouth denied that 
such' a relinquishment had been made, and protested 
aaainst the proceedings of Massachusetts, in relation to 
Warwick This disagreement among themselves may be 
received as one of the proofs, that neither party had any 
just claims. 



25a 



MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER XX. 



Mr Williams and Mr Clarke sail-Mr. Coddington's charter va- 
cated— troiibles in Rhode-Island— Mr. Williams returns— Sir Hen- 
ry Vane-Milton-Mr. Williams endeavors to re-establish order- 



Indi 



lans 



-letter on religious and civil liberty 



Mr. Williams and Mr. Clarke sailed from Boston for 
England, m November, 1651. It was not without con- 
siderable difficulty that Mr. Williams was allowed to take 
passage at Boston. The object of his mission was offensive 
to Massachusetts, besides the old dislike of his principles. 

During their absence, the towns of Newport and Ports- 
mouth submitted quietly to Mr. Coddington's rule. Provi- 
dence and Warwick resolved to maintain the government 
as before established. They accordingly met by their 
deputies, in General Assembly, at Providence, elected a 
Governor, and enacted several laws, one of which prohib- 
ited any person from purchasing land of the Indians, with- 
out the approbation of the Assembly, on penalty of forfeit- 
ing the same to the colony. 

Mr. Williams and Mr. Clarke, on their arrival in Eng- 
land, presented a petition to the Council of State, who, on 
April 8, 1652, referred it to the committee for foreign 
affairs. The application met with opposition, from various 
sources ; but the Council of State granted an order to 
vacate Mr. Coddington's commission, and to confirm the 
former charter. 

While in England, in 1652, Mr. Clarke published a 
book, entitled - III News from New-England, or a Narrative 
^ u^^^^"^^^"^'^ Persecutions ; wherein it is declared, that 
while Old England is becoming New, New-England is 
becommg Old ; also. Four Proposals to Parliament, and 
1 our Conclusions, touching the Faith and Order of the 
Gospel of Christ, out of his Last Will and Testament." 

Mr. Williams also published, in 1652, his rejoinder to 
Mr. Cotton, entitled " The Bloody Tenet yet More Bloody 
by Mr. Cotton's Endeavor to Wash it White ;" and two 
essays, the one entitled " The Hireling Ministry None of 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 253 

Christ's, or a Discourse on the Propagation of the Gospel 
of Jesus Christ ;" and the otlier, " Experiments of Spiritual 
Life and Health, and their Preservatives." 

The following letter was written to Mr, Gregory Dexter, 
who had printed Mr. Williams' " Key," during his first 
visit to England, but who had subsequently removed to 
Providence : 

" At Mr. Davis his house, at the Checker, in St. Martin's, 
or at Sir Henry Vane's, at Whitehall. 

"8th, 7, 52, {so called.) 
" My dear and faithful friend, to whom, with the dearest, 
I humbly wish more and more of the light and love of him 
who is invisible, God blessed for evermore in the face of 
Jesus Christ. It hath pleased God so to engage me in 
divers skirmishes against the priests, both of Old and New- 
England, so that I have occasioned using the help of 
printer men, unknown to me, to long for my old friend. 
So it hath pleased God to hold open an open desire of 
preaching and printing wonderfully against Romish and 
English will-worship. At this present, the devil rageth and 
clamors in petitions and remonstrances from the stationers 
and others to the Parliament, and all cry, 'shut up the 
press.' The stationers and others have put forth ' The 
Beacon Fired,' and ' The Second Beacon Fired ;' and some 
friends of yours have put forth ' The Beacon Quenched,' 
not yet extant. 

" Sir, many friends have frequently, with much love, 
inquired after you. Mr. Warner is not yet come with my 
letters: they put into Barnstable. She came by wagon by 
land, but he goes with the ship to Bristol, and, indeed, in 
this dangerous war with the Dutch, the only safe trading is 
to Bristol, or those parts, for up along the channel, in Lon- 
don way, is the greatest danger, for although our fleets be 
abroad, and take many French and Dutch, yet they some- 
times catch up some £tf ours. 

" By my public letters, you will see how we wrestle, and 
how we are like yet to wrestle, in the hopes of an end. 
Praised be the Lord, we are preserved, the nation is pre- 
served, the Parliament sits, God's people are secure, too 
secure. A great opinion is, that the kingdom of Christ is 
risen, and (Rev. 11:) 'the kingdoms of the earth are be- 
22* 



254 MEMOIR OP 

come the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.' Others 
have fear of the slaughter of the witnesses yet approaching. 
Divers friends, of all sorts, here, long to see you, and won- 
der you come not over. For myself, I had hopes to have 
got away by this ship, but I see now the mind of the Lord 
to hold me here one year longer. It is God's mercy, his 
very great mercy, that we have obtained this interim en- 
couragement from the Council of State, that you may 
cheerfully go on in the name of a colony, until the contro- 
versy is determined. The determination of it. Sir, I fear, 
will be a work of time, I fear longer than we have yet been 
here, for our adversaries threaten to make a last appeal to 
the Parliament, in case we get the day before the Council. 

" Sir, in this regard, and when my public business is 
over, I am resolved to begin mj old law-suit, so that I have 
no thought of return until spring come twelve months. 
My duty and affection hath compelled me to acquaint my 
poor companion with it. I consider our many children, 
the danger of the seas, and enemies, and therefore I write 
not positively for her, only I acquaint her with our affairs. 
I tell her, joyful I should be of her being here with me, 
until our state affairs were ended, and I freely leave her to 
wait upon the Lord for direction, and according as she 
finds her spirit free and cheerful, to come or stay. If it 
please the Lord to give her a free spirit to cast herself upon 
the Lord, I doubt not of your love and faithful care, in any 
thing she hath occasion to use your help, concerning our 
children and affairs, during our absence ; but I conclude, 
whom have I in heaven or earth but thee, and so humbly 
and thankfully say, in the Lord's pleasure, as only and in- 
finitely best and sweetest. 

" Abundance of love remembered from abundance of 
friends to your dear self and your dearest. 

" My love to your cousin Clemence, and all desire love, 
especially our godly friends. 

" To my dear and faithfid friend, Mr. Gregory Dexter, 
at Providence, in New-England, these." 

The General Assembly, which met at Providence, in 
October, addressed the following letter to Mr. Williams. 
It is valuable, as a public testimonial of the affection of his 
fellow-citizens. The proposition to procure for himself, 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 255 

from the government of England, an appointment as Gov- 
ernor of the colony for one year, is a strong proof of their 
respect and confidence, though this proposition was pro- 
tested against by some of them. Mr. Williams, we pre- 
sume, did not covet this distinction, and probably consid- 
ered such an appointment as a dangerous precedent, and a 
virtual relinquishment of the authority given to the colony 
by the charter to elect its own officers. 

" Honored Sir, 

"We may not neglect any opportunity to salute you in 
this your absence, and have not a little cause to bless 
God, who hath pleased to select you to such a purpose, as 
we doubt not but will conduce to the peace and safety of 
us all, as to make you once more an instrument to impart 
and disclose our cause unto those noble and grave senators, 
our honorable protectors, in whose eyes God hath given 
you honor, (as we understand) beyond our hopeSj and 
moved the hearts of the wise to stir on your behalf We give 
you hearty thanks for your care and diligence, to watch all 
opportunities to promote our peace, for we perceive your 
prudent and comprehensive mind stirreth every stone to 
present it to the builders, to make firm the fabric unto us, 
about which you are employed, laboring to unweave such 
irregular devices wrought by others amongst us, as have 
formerly clothed us with so sad events, as the subjection of 
some among us, both English and Indian, to other jurisdic- 
tions, as also to prevent such near approach of our neigh- 
bors upon our borders, on the Narraganset side, which 
might much annoy us, with your endeavors to furnish us 
with such ammunition as to look a foreign enemy in the 
face, being that the cruel begin to stir in these western 
parts, and to unite in one again such as of late have had 
seeming separation in some respects, to encourage and 
strengthen our weak and enfeebled body to perform its 
work in these foreign parts, to the honor of such as take 
care, have been and are so tender of our good, though we 
be unworthy to be had in remembrance by persons of so 
noble places, indued with parts of so excellent and honora- 
ble and abundantly beneficial use. 

" Sir, give us leave to intimate thus much, that we hum- 
bly conceive (so far as we are able to understand) that if 



256 MEMOIR OF 

it be the pleasure of our protectors to renew our charter for 
the re-establishing of our government, that it might tend 
much to the weighing of men's minds, and subjecting of 
persons who have been refractory, to yield themselves ever 
as unto a settled government, if it might be the plenFi^re of 
that honorable state, to invest, appoint, and empower your- 
self to come over as Governor of this colony, for the space 
of one year, and so the government to be honorably put 
upon this place, which might seem to add weight forever 
hereafter in the constant and successive derivation of the 
same. We only present it to your deliberate thoughts and 
consideration, with our hearty desires that your time of 
stay there for the effectual perfecting and finishing of your 
so weighty affairs may not seem tedious, nor be any dis- 
couragement unto you ; rather than you shall suffer for 
loss of time here, or expense there, we are resolved to 
stretch forth our hands at your return, beyond our strength, 
for your supply. Your lovhig bed-fellow is in health, and 
presents her endeared affection, so are all your family. 
Mr. Sayles, also, and his, w^ith the rest of your friends 
throughout the colony, who wish and desire earnestly to 
see your face. 

'' Sir, we are yours; leaving you unto the Lord, we 
heartily take leave. 

" From the General Assembly of this colony of Provi- 
dence Plantations, assembled in the town of Providence, 
the 28th of October, 1652. 

''JOHN GREENE, General Recorder:' ^■ 

The order of the Council of State was sent over by Mr. 
William Dyre, who, perhaps, accompanied the agents to 
England. This order directed the towns to unite again, 
as before ; but it was found, in this, as in other cases, easier 
to command, than to enforce obedience. The towns seem 

* Providence Records. This letter was written, apparently, in ac- 
cordance with the following act, passed on the 3d of June preceding: 
"■ Whereas we have received divers loving letters from our agent, 
Mr. Roger Williams, in England, wherein the careful proceedings 
are manifested unto us concerning our public affairs, and yet no 
answering letters of encouragement have been sent unto him from 
this colony ; therefore the town doth take it into consideration, and 
orders to make arrangements for a committee of the two towns of 
Warwick and Providence to write to him. ' 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 257 

to have been jealous of each other, and tenacious of their 
claims to precedence. It was found difficult to procure a 
meeting, to adjust the government ; the two towns on the 
island insisting that the meeting should be held there, as 
the largest part of the colony, while the towns of Providence 
and Warwick made a similar claim, with the plausible 
reason, that they had steadily adhered to the charter. 

The result was, either from mistake or from a rigid ad- 
herence to etiquette, that two meetings were held. Mr. 
Backus says :* 

" The towns on the main met at Providence, May 17, 
1653, and elected their officers. An assembly met at the 
same time on the island, and chose Mr. Sanford their Pres- 
ident, and some freemen coming from the main, they chose 
an assistant for each town in the colony ; and they sent 
Mr. James Barker and Mr. Richard Knight to Mr. Cod- 
dington, to demand the statute book and book of records. 
And as it was then a time of war betwixt England and 
Holland, and a mention was made of it in the letters which 
confirmed their charter, Dyre thought to make his advan- 
tage thereby, and procured commissions for himself, Capt. 
Underbill and Edward Hull, to act against the Dutch in 
America ; and some cannon, with twenty men, were sent 
to the English, on the east end of Long-Island, to enable 
them to act against the Dutch, who lay to the westward of 
them. This alarmed Providence colony, who met again in 
June, and a third time at Warwick, on August 13, when 
they answered a letter from the Massachusetts, and remon- 
strated against being drawn into a war with the Dutch ; 
and wrote to Mr. Williams an account of Dyre's conduct, 
and of their being urged to give up their former actings as 
null ; but, say they, ' being still in the same order you left 
us, and observing two great evils that sucJa a course would 
bring upon us: First, the hazard of involving in all the 
disorders and bloodshed which have been committed on 
Rhode-Island since their separation from us.' Secondly, 
' the invading and frustrating of justice in divers weighty 
causes, then orderly depending in our courts, in some of 
which causes, Mr. Smith, President, William Field, &c. 

*Vol. i. p. 279. 



258 MEMOIR OF 

were deeply concerned ;' therefore they could not yield to 
such a motion.' " 

Mr. Williams and Mr. Clarke continued in England, en- 
deavoring to sustain the rights of the colony. They had 
many opposers, but they found a steady and powerful friend 
in Sir Henry Vane.* At his seat Mr. Williams spent a 
portion of his time. While there, he wrote the following 
letter to the towns of Providence and Warwick. It ex- 
hibits his generous self-devotion for the public good, his 
love for his family, and his characteristic regard for the 
Indians : 

" From Sir Henry Vane's, at Belleau, in Lincolnshire. 

''April \st, 53, {so called.) 

" My dear and loving friends and neighbors of Provi- 
dence and Warwick, our noble friend. Sir Henry Vane, 
having the navy of England mostly depending on his care, 
and going down to the navy at Portsmouth, I was invited 
by them both to accompany his lady to Lincolnshire, where 
I shall yet stay, as I fear, until the ship is gone. I must 
therefore pray your pardon, that by the post I send this to 
London. I hope it may have pleased the Most High Lord 
of sea and land to bring Capt. Ch-rst-n's ship and dear 
Mr. Dyre unto you, and with him the Council's letters, 
which answer the petition Sir Henry Vane and myself 
drew up, and the Council, by Sir Henry's mediation, grant- 
ed us, for the confirmation of the charter, until the deter- 
mination of the controversy. This determination, you may 
please to understand, is hindered by two main obstructions. 
The first is the mighty war with the Dutch, which makes 
England and Holland and the nations tremble. This hath 
made the Parliament set Sir Henry Vane and two or three 
more as commissioners to manage the w^ar, which they 

* Sir Henry Vane was born in England. He was a non-conform- 
ist, and he came to New-England in 1635. The next year he was 
elected Governor of Massachusetts, though he was only twenty-four 
years of age. He became a follower of Mrs. Hutchinson, and was soon 
superseded by Governor Winthrop. He returned to England, 
where he took a decided part against the King, and opposed Crom- 
well. After the restoration, he was executed for high treason, June 
14, 1662, aged fifty years. He died with great firmness and dignity. 
He appears to have been an a.ble man, sincerely pious, and a true 
friend of liberty. 



liOCiKR WILLIAMS. 259 

have done, with much engaging the name of God with 
them, who hath appeared in helping sixty of ours against 
almost three hundred of their men-of-war, and perchance 
to the sinking and taking about one hundred of theirs, and 
but one of ours, which was sunk by our own men. Our 
second obstruction is the opposition of our adversaries, Sir 
A:..,dr Haselrig and Col. Fenwicke, who hath married his 
daughter, Mr. Winslow, and Mr. Hopkins, both in great 
place ; and all the friends they can make in Parliament 
and Council, and all the priests, both Presbyterian and In- 
dependent ; so that we stand as two armies, ready to en- 
gage, observing the motions and postures each of the other, 
and yet shy each of other. Under God, the sheet-anchor 
of our ship is Sir Henry, who will do as the eye of God 
leads him, and he faithfully promised me that he would ob- 
serve the motion of our New-England business, while I 
staid some ten weeks with his lady in Lincolnshire. Be- 
sides, here is great thoughts and preparation for a new 
Parliament; some of our friends are apt to think another 
Parliament will more favor us and our cause than this has 
done. You may please to put my condition into your soul's 
cases ; remember I am a father and a husband. 1 have 
longed earnestly to return with the last ship, and with 
these, yet I have not been willing to withdraw my shoulders 
from the burthen, lest it pinch others, and may fall heavy 
upon all : except you are pleased to give to me a discharge. 
If you conceive it necessary for me still to attend this ser- 
vice, pray you consider if it be not convenient that my poor 
wife be encouraged to come over to me, and to wait to- 
gether on the good pleasure of God for the end of this mat- 
ter. You know my many wciglits hanging on me, how my 
own place stands, and how many reasons I have to cause 
me to make haste, yet I would not lose their estates, peace 
and liberty, by leaving hastily. I write to my dear wife, 
my great desire of her coming while I stay, yet left it to the 
freedom of her spirit, because of the many dangers; truly, 
at present the seas are dangerous, but not comparably so 
much, nor likely to be, because of the late great defeat of 
the Dutch, and their present sending to us oiFers of peace. 
" My dear friends, although it pleased God himself, by 
many favors, to encourage me, yet please you to remember, 
that no man can stay here as I do, leaving a present em- 



260 



MEMOIR OF 



ployment there, without much self-denial, which I beseech 
God for more, and for you also, that no private respects, or 
gams, or quarrels, may cause you to neglect the public and 
common safety, peace and liberties. I beseech the blessed 
God to keep fresh in your thoughts what he hath done for 
Providence Plantations. 

" My dear respects to yourselves, wives and children. I 
beseech the eternal God to be seen amongst you ; so prays 
your most faithful and affectionate friend and servant 
„ ^ , " ROGER WILLIAMS. 

" P. S. My love to all my Indian friends."* 

The difficulties in the colony continued, and were art- 
fully fomented by uneasy men, who thought disorder more 
propitious to their interests than the stable dominion of law 
and good government. Mr. Williams felt that his pres- 
ence was needed at home, that he might, if possible, bring 
the discordant towns into harmonious co-operation. He 
therefore left Mr. Clarke in England, to prosecute the duties 
of their mission, and returned, early in the summer of 
1654. He landed at Boston, and being furnished with 
an order from the Lord Protector's Council, requiring the 
government of Massachusetts to allow him in future tS em- 
bark or land in their territories, he was not molested. He 
brought the following letter from Sir Henry Vane, ad- 
dressed to the inhabitants of the colony of Rhode-Island : 
" Loving and Christian friends, 
" I could not refuse this bearer, Mr. Roger Williams 
my kind friend and ancient acquaintance, to be accompa- 
nied with these few lines from myself to you, upon his re- 
turn to Providence colony ; though, perhaps, my private 
and retired condition, which the Lord, of his mercy hath 
brought me into, might have argued strongly enough for 
my silence ; but, indeed, something I hold myself bound 
to say to you, out of the Christian love I bear you, and for 
his sake whose name is called upon by you and eno-aaed 
m your behalf. How is it that there are such divisions 
amongst you ? Such headiness, tumults, disorders, in- 
justice ? The noise echoes into the ears of all, as 'well 
triends as enemies, by every return of ships from those 
parts. Is not the fear and awe of God amongst you to re- 

* Backus, vol. i. pp. 285-8. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 261 

Strain ? Is not the love of Christ in you, to fill you with 
yearning bowels, one towards another, and constrain you 
not to live to yourselves, but to him that died for you, yea, 
and is risen again 1 Are there no wise men amongst you ? 
No public self-denying spirits, that at least, upon the 
grounds of public safety, equity and prudence, can find out 
some way or means of union and reconciliation for you 
amongst yourselves, before you become a prey to common 
enemies, especially since this state, by the last letter from 
the Council of State, give you your freedom, as supposing 
a better use would have been made of it than there hath 
been ? Surely, when kind and simple remedies are ap- 
plied and are ineffectual, it speaks loud and broadly the 
high and dangerous distempers of such a body, as if the 
wounds were incurable. But I hope better things from 
you, though I thus speak, and should be apt to think, that 
by commissioners agreed on and appointed on all parts, 
and on behalf of all interests, in a general meeting, such a 
union and common satisfaction might arise, as, through 
God's blessing, might put a stop to your growing breaches 
and distractions, silence your enemies, encourage your 
friends, honor the name of God, (which of late hath been 
much blasphemed, by reason of you,) and in particular, re- 
fresh and revive the sad heart of him who mourns over 
your present evils, as being your affectionate friend, to 
serve you in the Lord. 

''H. VANE. 
" Belleau, the 8th of Fehriiarij , 1653-4."* 

Soon after Mr. Williams returned, he wrote the follow- 
ing letter to his friend, Mr. Winthrop : 

" For my much honored, kind friend, Mr. John Win- 
throp, at Pequod. 

^'■Providence, July 12, 54, {so called.) 
"Sir, 
" I was humbly bold to salute you from our native coun- 
try, and now, by the gracious hand of the Lord, once more 
saluting this wilderness, I crave your wonted patience to 
my wonted boldness, who ever honored and loved, and ever 
shall, the root and branches of your dear name. How joy- 

* Backus, vol. i. p. 288. 
23 



^62 MEMOIR O P 

ful, therefore, was I to hear of your abode as a stake and 
pillar in these parts, and of your healths, your own, Mrs, 
Winthrop, and your branches, although some sad mixtures 
we have had from the sad tidings (if true) of the late loss 
and cutting off of one of them. 

" Sir, I was lately upon the wing to have waited on you 
at your house. I had disposed all for my journey, and my 
staff was in my hand, but it pleased the Lord to interpose 
some impediments, so that I am compelled to a suspension 
for a season, and choose at present thus to visit you. I 
had no letters for you, but yours were well. I was at the 
lodgings of Major Winthrop and Mr. Peters, but I missed 
them. Your brother flourisheth in good esteem, and is 
eminent for maintaining the freedom of the conscience as 
to matters of belief, religion and worship. Your father 
Peters* preacheth the same doctrine, though not so zeal- 
ously as some years since, yet cries out against New-English 
rigidities and persecutions, their civil injuries and wrongs 
to himself, and their unchristian dealing with him, in ex- 
communicating his distracted wife. All this he told me in 
his lodgings, at Whitehall, those lodgings which I was told 
were Canterbury's ; but he himself told me, that that libra- 
ry, wherein we were together, was Canterbury's, and given 
him by the Parliament. His wife lives from him not 
wholly, but much distracted. He tells me he had but two 
hundred a year, and he allowed her fourscore per annum 
of it. Surely, Sir, the most holy Lord is most wise in all 
the trials he exerciseth his people with. He told me that 
his affliction from his wife stirred him up to action abroad, 
and when success tempted him to pride, the bitterness in 
his bosom comforts was a cooler and a bridle to him. 

" Surely, Sir, your father, and all the people of God in 
England, formerly called Puritanus AngUcanus, of late 
Ro2indhcads , now the Sectarians, (as more or less cut off 
from the parishes) are now in the saddle and at the helm, 
so high that non datur descensus nisi cadendo. Some cheer 
up their spirits with the impossibility of another fall or turn, 
so doth Major Gen. Harrison, and Mr. Feake, and Mr. 
John Simson, now in Windsor Castle for preaching against 
this last change, and against the Protector, as an usurper, 

** Mr, Winthrop had married a daughter of the Rev Hugh Peters. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 263 

Richard III., &.c. So did many think of the last Parlia- 
ment, who were of the vote of fifty-six against priests and 
tithes, opposite to the vote of the fifty-four who were for 
them, at least for a while. Major Gen. Harrison was the 
second in the nation of late, when the loving General and 
himself joined against the former Long Parliament and dis- 
solved them, but now being the head of the fifty-six party, 
he was confined by the Protector and Council, within five 
miles of his father's house, in Staffordshire. That sen- 
tence he not obeying, he told me (the day before my leav- 
ing London) he was to be sent prisoner into Harfordshire. 
Surely, Sir, he is a very gallant, most deserving, heavenly 
man, but most high flown for the kingdom of the saints, 
and the fifth monarchy now risen, and their sun never to 
set again, &c. Others, as to my knowledge, the Protector, 
Lord President Lawrence, and others at helm, with Sir 
Henry Vane, (retired into Lincolnshire, yet daily missed 
and courted for his assistance) are not so full of that faith 
of miracles, but still imagine changes and persecutions and 
the very slaughter of the witnesses, before that glorious 
morning so much desired of a worldly kingdom, if ever 
such a kingdom (as literally it is by so m^»^y expounded) 
be to arise in this present world and dispensation. 

" Sir, I know not how far your judgment hath concurred 
with the design against the Dutch. I must acknowledge 
my mourning for it, and when I heard of it, at Portsmouth, 
I confess I wrote letters to the Protector and President, 
from thence, as against a most uningenuous and unchristian 
design, at such a time, when the world stood gazing at the 
so famous treaty for peace, which was then betv.^een the 
two States, and near finished when we set sail. Much I 
can tell you of the answer I had from Court, and I think 
of the answers I had from heaven, viz. that the Lord would 
graciously retard us until the tidings of peace (from Eng- 
land) might quench the fire in the kindling of it. 

" Sir, I mourn that any of our parts were so madly in- 
jurious to trouble yours. I pity poor Sabando. I yet have 
hopes in God that we shall be more loving and peaceable 
neighbors. I had word from the Lord President to Ports- 
mouth, that the Council had passed three letters as to our 
business. First, to encourage us ; second, to our neighbor 
colonies not to molest us; third, in exposition of that word 



264 MEMOIR OF 

dominion, in the late frame of the government of England, 
viz. that liberty of conscience should be maintained in all 
American plantations, &-c. 

" Sir, a great man in America told me, that he thought 
New-England would not bear it. I hope better, and that 
not only the necessity, but the equity, piety and Christianity 
of that freedom will more and more shine forth, not to 
licentiousness, (as all mercies are apt to be abused) but to 
the beauty of Christianity and the lustre of true faith in 
God and love to poor mankind, &c. 

" Sir, I have desires of keeping home. I have long had 
scruples of selling the natives aught but what may bring 
or tend to civilizing ; I therefore neither brought, nor shall 
sell them, loose coats nor breeches. It pleased the Lord 
to call me for some time, and with some persons, to prac- 
tise the Hebrew, the Greek, Latin, French and Dutch. 
The Secretary of the Council, (Mr. Milton) for my Dutch 
I read him, read me many more languages. Grammar 
rules begin to be esteemed a tyranny. I taught two young 
gentlemen, a Parliament man's sons, as we teach our chil- 
dren English, by words, phrases and constant talk, &.c. I 
have begun with mine own three boys, who labor besides ; 
others are coming to me. 

" Sir, I shall rejoice to receive a word of your healths, 
of the Indian wars, and to be ever yours, 

''R. W. 

" Sir, I pray seal and send the enclosed." 

Among other remarkable passages, in the foregoing let- 
ter, the allusion to Milton is not the least interesting. He 
was then the Secretary of the government, and in that 
office he honored the English name, by his eloquent writings 
in defence of liberty. Mr. Williams was naturally attract- 
ed to a communion with the lofty spirit of Milton. His 
was a kindred mind, imbued with the same love of liberty, 
and alike free from selfish ends. Both encountered perse- 
cution, and endured poverty for their principles. They 
both acted in the same spirit of self-sacrifice for the good 
of others ; and Mr. Williams might have used, with equal 
truth and propriety, the magnanimous and almost tri- 
umphant language of Milton, in his sonnet on the loss of 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 265 

his sight, which was hastened by his intense application to 
his noble " Defensio pro Populo Anglicano." 

'■ I argue not 
Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot 
Of heart or hope, but still bear up, and steer 
Right onward." 

The preceding letter bears an incidental testimony to 
the various learning of Milton, and it implies, that Mr. 
Williams was sufficiently versed in the Hebrew, Greek, 
Latin, Dutch and French languages, to teach them. It 
shows, moreover, that, like Milton himself, and Dr. John- 
son, and other distinguished men, Mr. Williams employed 
himself in the honorable office of an instructor of youth ; 
an office worthy of the most gifted mind, and which ranks, 
in the estimate of sober reason, second to no other function, 
except that of the teacher of religion. This fact is the 
more honorable to Mr. Williams, because he became a 
teacher, as a means of subsistence, while he was serving 
his colony in England.* 

* It appears, that while Mr. Williams was in England, he was 
obliged to provide for his own support, while his large family, we 
may presume, w'ere injured by his absence. The General Assembly 
of the towns of Providence and Warwick, expressed in a letter, their 
regret, that they could not send him money, in consequence of their 
domestic trials, but informed him that they meant to aid his family. 
In his "Bloody Tenet made more Blood}'-," he mentions his exertions 
to supply the poor in London with fuel, during the civil Vv^ars ; to 
which service he was led, probably, by his benevolent and active 
temper, as well as by the desire to obtain a subsistence. He says : 
" I can tell, that when these discussions w^ere prepared for the public 
in London, his time was eaten up in attendance upon the service of 
the Parliament and city, for the supply of the poor of the city with 
wood, during the stop of the coal from Newcastle, and the mutinies of 
the poor for tiring [for which service, lie adds in a note, through the 
hurry of the time:s and the necessity of his departure, he lost his rec- 
ompense to this day.] It is true, he mig;ht have run the road of pre- 
ferment, as well in Old as in New-Enghnid, and have had the leisure 
and time of such who eat and drink v.ith the drunken, and smite 
with the fist of wickedness their fellow-servants." (p. 38.) In his 
letter to the town of Providence, in l(i54, he says, '' I was unfortu- 
nately fetched and drawn from my emj.loyment, and sent to so vast 
distance from my family to do your work of a high and costly nature, 
for so many days, and weeks, and niontiis together, and there left to 
starve, or steal, or beg, or borrow. But blessed be God, who gave me 
favor to borrow one while, and to work another, and thereby to pay 
vour debts there, and to come over with your credit and honor, as an 

23* 



266 MEMOIR OP ^ 

In the following letter to the town of Providence, Mr. 
Williams alludes, in affecting terms, to his toils and sacri- 
fices, and to the ungrateful requital with which they had 
been met by some individuals : 

" AVell beloved friends and neighbors, 
" I am like a man in a great fog. I know not well how 
to steer. I fear to run upon the rocks at home, having had 
trials abroad. I fear to run quite backward, as men in a 
mist do, and undo all that I have been a long time undoing 
myself to do, viz. to keep up the name of a people, a free 
people, not enslaved to the bondages and iron yokes of the 
great (both soul and body) oppressions of the English and 
barbarians about us, nor to the divisions and disorders 
within ourselves. Since I set the first step of any English" 
foot into these wild parts, and have maintained a chargea- 
ble and hazardous correspondence with the barbarians, and 
spent almost five years' time with the state of England, to 
keep off the rage of the English against us, what have I 
reaped of the root of being the stepping-stone of so many 
families and towns about us, but grief, and sorrow, and 
bitterness? I have been charged with folly for that free- 
dom and liberty which I have always stood for ; I say lib- 
erty and equality, both in land and government. I have 
been blamed for parting with Moshassuck, and afterward 
Pawtuxet, (which were mine own as truly as any man's coat 
upon his back,) without reserving to myself a foot of land, 
or an inch of voice in any matter, more than to my servants 
and strangers. It hath been told me that I labored for a 
licentious and contentious people ; that I have foolishly 
parted with town and colony advantages, by which I might 
have preserved both town and colony in as good order as 
any in the country about us. This, and ten times more, I 
have been censured for, and at this present am called a 
traitor, by one party, against the state of England, for not 
maintaining the charter and the colony ; and it is said that 
I am as good as banished by yourselves, and that both sides 
wished that I might never have landed, that the fire of con- 
agent from you, who had in your name grappled with the agents and 
friends of all your enemies round about you." Few stronger exam- 
ples of disinterested patriotism could be found in any age or coun- 
try. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 267 

tention might have had no stop in burning. Indeed, the 
words have been so sharp between myself and some lately, 
that at last I was forced to say, they might well silence all 
complaints if I once began to complain, who was unfortu- 
nately fetched and drawn from my employment, and sent 
to so vast distance from my family, to do your work of a 
high and costly nature, for so many days and weeks and 
months together, and there left to starve, or steal, or beg or 
borrow. But blessed be God, who gave me favor to borrow 
one while, and to work another, and thereby to pay your 
debts there, and to come over with your credit and honor, 
as an agent from you, who had, in your name, grappled 
with the agents and friends of all your enemies round about 
you. I am told that your opposites thought on me, and 
provided, as I may say, a sponge to wipe off your scores 
and debts in England, but that it was obstructed by your- 
selves, who rather meditated on means and new agents to be 
sent over, to cross what Mr. Clarke and I obtained. But, 
gentlemen, blessed be God, who faileth not, and blessed be 
his name for his wonderful Providences, by which alone 
this town and colony, and that grand cause of Truth and 
Freedom of Conscience, hath been upheld to this day. 
And blessed be his name who hath again quenched so 
much of our fires hitherto, and hath brought your names 
and his own name thus far out of the dirt of scorn, re- 
proach, &/C. I find among yourselves and your opposites 
that of Solomon true, that the contentions of brethren 
(some that lately were so) are the bars of a castle, and not 
easily broken ; and I have heard some of both sides zeal- 
ously talking of undoing themselves by a trial in England. 
Truly, friends, I cannot but fear you lost a fair wind lately, 
when this town was sent to for its deputies, and you were 
not pleased to give an overture unto the rest of the inhab- 
itants about it ; yea, and when yourselves thought that I in- 
vited you to some conference tending to reconciliation, be- 
fore the town should act in so fundamental a business, you 
were pleased to forestall that, so that being full of grief, 
shame and astonishment, yea, and fear that all that is now 
done, especially in our town of Providence, is but provok- 
ing the spirits of men to fury and desperation, I pray your 
leave to pray you to remember (that which I lately told your 
opposites) only hy pride cometh contention. If there be 



268 MEMOIR OF 

humility on the one side, yet there is pride on the other, and 
certainly the eternal God will engage against the proud. I 
therefore pray you to examine, as I have done them, your 
proceedings in this first particular. Secondly, Love cover- 
eth a multitude of sins. Surely your charges and complaints 
each against other, have not hid nor covered any thing, 
as we use to cover the nakedness of those we love. If you 
will now profess not to have disfranchised humanity and 
love, but that, as David in another case, you will sacrifice 
to the common peace, and common safety, and common 
credit, that which may be said to cost you something, I 
pray your loving leave to tell you, that if I were in your 
soul's case, I would send unto your opposites such a line as 
this ; '• Neighbors, at the constant request, and upon the 
constant mediation which our neighbor Roger Williams, 
since his arrival, hath used to us, both for pacification and 
accommodation of our sad differences, and also upon the 
late endeavors in all the other towns for an union, we are 
persuaded to remove our obstruction, viz. that paper of con- 
tention between us, and to deliver it into the hands of our 
aforesjaid neighbor, and to obliterate that order, which that 
paper did occasion. This removed, you may be pleased to 
meet with, and debate freely, and vote in all matters with 
us, as if such grievances had not been amongst us. Sec-^ 
ondly, if yet aught remain grievous, which we ourselves, 
by free debate and conference, cannot compose, we offer to 
be judged and censured by four men, which out of any part 
of the colony you shall choose two, and we the other.' 

"Gentlemen, I only add, that I crave your loving pardon 
to your bold but true friend, 

" ROGER WILLIAM^." 

The pathetic earnestness, and conciliatory yet dignified 
tone of this letter, produced a favorable effect. At a town 
meeting held in Providence, in August, Mr. Williams was 
requested to prepare an answer to Sir Henry Vane's letter, 
in the name of the town. This answer, dated August 27, 
1654, is as follows. It bears the characteristics of Mr. 
Williams' style, and it expresses his opinions of certain 
public men and measures : 
'' Sir, 

"Although we are aggrieved at your late retirement from 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 

the helm of public affairs, yet we rejoice to reap the sweet 
fruits of your rest in your pious and loving lines, most sea- 
sonably sent unto us. Thus the sun, when he retires his 
brightness from the world, yet from under the very clouds 
we perceive his presence, and enjoy some light and heat 
and sweet refreshings. Sir, your letters were directed to 
all and every particular town of this Providence colony. 
Surely, Sir, among the many providences of the Most High, 
towards this town of Providence, and this Providence colo- 
ny, we cannot but see apparently his gracious hand, provid- 
ing your honorable self for so noble and true a friend to an 
outcast and despised people. From the first beginning of 
this Providence colony, occasioned by the banishment of 
some in this place from the Massachusetts, we say ever 
since to this very day, we have reaped the sweet fruits of 
your constant loving kindness and favor towards us. Oh, 
Sir, whence, then, is it that you have bent your bow, and 
shot your sharp and bitter arrows now against us 1 Whence 
is it that you charge us with divisions, disorders, &c. 1 Sir, 
we humbly pray your gentle acceptance of our two fold 
answer. 

*' First, we have been greatly disturbed and distracted by 
the ambition and covetousness of some amongst us. Sir, 
we were in complete order, until Mr. Coddington, wanting 
that public, self-denying spirit which you commend to us in 
your letter, procured, by most untrue information, a monop- 
oly of part of the colony, viz. Rhode-Island, to himself, 
and so occasioned our general disturbance and distractions. 
Secondly, Mr. Dyre, with no less want of a public spirit, 
being ruined by party contentions with Mr. Coddington, 
and being betrusted to bring from England the letters of 
the Council of State for our re-unitings, he hopes for a re- 
cruit to himself by other men's goods ; and, contrary to 
the State's intentions and expressions, plungeth himself and 
some others in most unnecessary and unrighteous plunder- 
ing, both of Dutch and French, and English also, to our 
great grief, who protested against such abuse of our power 
from England ; and the end of it is to the shame and re- 
proach of himself, and the very English name, as all these 
parts do witness. 

" Sir, our second answer is, (that we may not lay all the 
load upon other men's backs,) that possibly a sweet cup hath 



270 



MEMOIR OF 



rendered many of us wanton and too active, for we have 
long drunk of the cup of as great liberties as any people 
that we can hear of under the whole heaven. We have 
not only been long free (together with all New-England) 
from the iron yoke of wolvish bishops, and their popish 
ceremonies, (against whose cruel oppressions Grod raised 
up your noble spirit in Parliament,) but we have sitten 
quiet and dry from the streams of blood spilt by that war 
in our native country. We have not felt the new chains 
of the Presbyterian tyrants, nor in this colony have we 
been consumed with the over-zealous fire of the (so called) 
godly christian magistrates. Sir, we have not known what 
an excise means ; we have almost forgotten what tythes are, 
yea, or taxes either, to church or commonwealth. We 
could name other special privileges, ingredients of our 
sweet cup, which your great wisdom knows to be very 
powerful (except more than ordinary watchfulness) to ren- 
der the best of men wanton and forgetful. But, blessed be 
your love, and your loving heart and hand, awakening any 
of our sleepy spirits by your sweet alarm ; and blessed be 
your noble family, root and branch, and all your pious and 
prudent engagements and retirements. We hope you shall 
no more complain of the saddening of your loving heart 
by the men of Providence town or of Providence colony, 
but that when we are gone and rotten, our posterity and 
children after us shall read in our town records your pious 
and favorable letters and loving kindness to us, and this 
our answer, and real endeavor after peace and righteous- 
ness ; and to be found, Sir, your most obliged, and most 
humble servants, the town of Providence, in Providence 
colony, in New-England. 

'* GREGORY DEXTER, 

Totvn Clerk r 

The town of Providence, at the instance of Mr. Wil- 
liams, and the other towns, as we may presume, by his in- 
fluence, appointed commissioners, who met on the 31st of 
August, and re-established the government on its old 
foundations.* They appointed a general election, to be 



* The names of the commissioners are preserved by Backus, vol. i. 
p. 296, copied from the Providence records. 



k O G E R WILLIAMS. 271 

held at Warwick, on the 12th of September, at which Mr. 
Williams was chosen President of the colony, and, togeth- 
er with Mr. Gregory Dexter, was requested to " draw forth 
and send letters of humble thanksgiving to his Highness, 
the Lord Protector, and Sir Henry Vane, Mr. Holland, 
and Mr. John Clarke, in the name of the colony ; and Mr. 
Williams is desired to subscribe them, by virtue of his 
office." 

By the wisdom, and the firm yet healing gentleness of 
Mr. Williams, was the colony thus re-united, after a disor- 
derly interval of several years. The little bark was 
rescued from the rocks which threatened her destruction, 
and once more launched forth, her faithful pilot at the 
helm, and her banner, displaying her chosen motto 
*'Hope,'' floating again upon the breeze.* 

The following letter to the government of Massachusetts, 
alludes to some disturbances with the Indians, which oc- 
curred about this time. Ninigret, the Niantick sachem, 
had made war with the Indians of Long Island,t and was 
supposed to be in alliance with the Dutch at New- York. 
The commissioners of the united colonies sent a consid- 
erable force against Ninigret, under the command of Ma- 
jor Willard, of Massachusetts, but they returned without 
success, the sachem and his warriors having taken refuge 
in a swamp. The real cause, perhaps, why the war was 
not vigorously waged, was, that Massachusetts was opposed 
to hostilities, and with a wisdom and humanity which hon- 
ored her rulers, prevented at this time, as she had done on 
a former occasion, a general war with the natives. f We may 

* There is a slight anachronism here. It was in May, 1664, that 
the General Assembly ^' ordered, that the seal with the motto Rhode 
Island and Providence Plantations, with the word Hope over the an- 
chor, be the present seal of the colony." The seal adopted in 1647, 
when the government was organized under the first charter, bore 
simply an anchor. 

t Ninigret returned a haughty answer to a message from the com- 
missioners. He said, that he attacked the Long-Island Indians, be- 
cause they had killed a sachem's son, and sixty of his men, and he 
would not make peace with them. He asked of the commissioners, 
in a tone, which showed that he considered the Narragansets as a per- 
fectly independent nation: '' If your Governor's son was slain, and 
several other men, would you ask counsel of another nation when and 
how to right yourselves?" 

t Hutchinson, vol. i p. 172, 



^73 MEMOIR or 

hope, that the admirable letter of Mr. Williams had some 
effect in producing this pacific temper : 

" Providence , 5, 8, 54, (so called.) 
" Much honored Sirs, 
" I truly wish you peace, and pray your gentle accept- 
ance of a word, I hope not unreasonable. 

" We have in these parts a sound of your meditations of 
war against these natives, amongst whom we dwell. I 
consider that war is one of those three great, sore plagues, 
with which it pleaseth God to affect the sons of men. I 
consider, also, that I refused, lately, many offers in my na- 
tive country, out of a sincere desire to seek the good and 
peace of this. 

" I remember, that upon the express advice of your ever 
honored Mr. Winthrop, deceased,* I first adventured to 
begin a plantation among the thickest of these barba* 
rians. 

" That in the Pequod wars, it pleased your honored gov- 
ernment to employ me in the hazardous and weighty ser- 
vice of negotiating a league between yourselves and the 
Narragansets, when the Pequod messengers, who sought 
the Narragansets' league against the English, had almost 
ended that my work and life together. 

" That at the subscribing of that solemn league, which, 
by the mercy of the Lord, I had procured with the Narra- 
gansets, your government was pleased to send unto me the 
copy of it, subscribed by all hands there, which yet I keep 
as a monument and a testimony of peace and faithfulness 
between you both. 

'* That, since that time, it hath pleased the Lord so to 

* Governor Winthrop died, at Boston, on the 26th of March, 1C49, 
in the 62d year of his age. He was born in Groton, Sutfolk, (Eng.) 
January 12, 1588. He was a justice of peace at the age of eighteen. 
He had an estate of six or seven hundred pounds a year, which he 
turned into money, and embarked his all to promote the settlement of 
New-England. He was eleven times chosen Governor of Mossa- 
chusetts, and spent his whole estate in the public ^^ervice. His son 
and grandson were successively Governors of Connecticut. He was 
a great and good man. His Journal is a monument to his meinory — 
" sere perennius." He was a sincere friend of Roger Williams, 
though he disapproved his principles, and Mr. Williams always spoke 
of him with strong affection . 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 



273 



order it, that I have been more or less interested and 
used in all your great transactions of war or peace, be- 
tween the English and the natives, and have not spared 
purse, nor pains, nor hazards, (very many times,) that the 
whole land, English and natives, might sleep in peace se- 
curely. 

" That in my last negotiations in England, with the Par- 
liament, Council of State, and his Highness,* I have 
been forced to be known so much, that if I should be 
silent, I should not only betray mine own peace and yours, 
but also should be false to their honorable and princely 
names, whose loves and affections, as well as their supreme 
authority, are not a little concerned in the peace or war of 
this country. 

" At my last departure for England, I was importuned by 
the Narraganset sachems, and especially by Ninigret, to 
present their petition to the high sachems of England, that 
they might not be forced from their religion, and, for not 
changing their religion, be invaded by war ; for they said 
they were daily visited with threatenings by Indians that 
came from about the Massachusetts, that if they would 
not pray, they should be destroyed by war. With this 
their petition I acquainted, in private discourses, divers of 
the chief of our nation, and especially his Highness, who, 
in many discourses I had with him, never expressed the 
least tittle of displeasure, as hath been here reported, but, 
in the midst of disputes, ever expressed a high spirit of 
love and gentleness, and was often pleased to please him- 
self with very many questions, and my answers, about the 
Indian affairs of this country ; and, after all hearing of 
yourself and us, it hath pleased his Highness and his 
Council to grant, amongst other favors to this colony, some 
expressly concerning the very Indians, the native inhabit- 
ants of this jurisdiction. 

'' I, therefore, humbly offer to your prudent and impar- 
tial view, first, these two considerable terms, it pleased the 
Lord to use to all that profess his name (Rom. 12 : 18,) if 
it be possible, and all men. 

" I never was against the righteous use of the civil 
sword of men or nations, but yet since all men of con- 

* Cromwell. 
24 



^74 



MEMOIR or 



science or prudence ply to windward, to maintain th^ir 
wars to be defensive, (as did both King and Scotch, and' 
English, and Irish too, in the late wars,) I humbly pray 
your consideration, whether it be not only possible, but 
very easy, to live and die in peace with all the natives of 
this country. 

" For, secondly, are not all the English of this land, 
generally, a persecuted people from their native soil ? and 
hath not the God of peace and Father of mercies made 
these natives more friendly in this, than our native coun- 
trymen in our own land to us ? Have they not entered 
leagues of love, and to this day continued peaceable com- 
merce with us ? Are not our families grown up in peace 
amongst them ? Upon which I humbly ask, how it can 
suit with Christian ingenuity to take hold of some seeming 
occasions for their destructions, which, though the heads 
be only aimed at, yet, all experience tells us, falls on the 
body and the innocent. 

" Thirdly, I pray it may be remembered how greatly the 
name of God is concerned in this affair, for it cannot be 
hid, how all England and other nations ring with the glo- 
rious conversion of the Indians of New-England. You 
know how many books are dispersed throughout the na- 
tion, of the subject, (in some of them the Narraganset 
chief sachems are publicly branded, for refusing to pray 
and be converted ;) have all the pulpits in England been 
commanded to sound of this glorious work, (I speak not 
ironically, but only mention what all the printed books 
mention,) and that, by the highest command and authority 
of Parliament, and church wardens went from house to 
house, to gather supplies for this work. 
" Honored Sirs, 

" Whether I have been and am a friend to the natives" 
turning to civility and Christianity, and whether I have 
been instrumental, and desire so to be, according to my 
light, I will not trouble you with ; only I beseech you con- 
sider, how the name of the most holy and jealous God may 
be preserved between the clashings of these two, viz : the 
glorious conversion of the Indians in New-England, and 
the unnecessary wars and cruel destructions of the Indians 
in New-England. 

" Fourthly, I beseech you forget not, that although we 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 275 

Sire apt to play with this plague of war more than with the 
other two, famine and pestilence, yet I beseech you con- 
sider how the present events of all wars that ever have 
been in the world, have been wonderful fickle, and the 
future calamities and revolutions, wonderful in the latter 
end. 

" Heretofore, not having liberty of taking ship in your 
jurisdiction, I was forced to repair unto the Dutch, where 
mine eyes did see that first breaking forth of that Indian 
war, which the Dutch begun, upon the slaughter of some 
Dutch by the Indians ; and they questioned not to finish 
it in a few days, insomuch that the name of peace, which 
some offered to mediate, was foolish and odious to them. 
But before we weighed anchor, their bowries were in 
flames ; Dutch and English were slain. Mine eyes saw 
their flames at their towns, and the flights and hurries of 
men, women and children, the present removal of all that 
could for Holland ; and, after vast expenses, and mutual 
slaughters of Dutch, English, and Indians, about four 
years, the Dutch were forced, to save their plantation from 
ruin, to make up a most unworthy and dishonorable peace 
with the Indians. 

" How frequently is that saying in England, that both 
Scotch and English had better have borne loans, ship 
money, &c. than run upon such rocks, that even suc- 
cess and victory have proved, and are yet like to prove. 
Yea, this late war with Holland, however begun with zeal 
against God's enemies, as some in Parliament said, yet 
what fruits brought it forth, but the breach of the Parlia- 
ment, the enraging of the nation by taxes, the ruin of 
thousands who depended on manufactures and merchan- 
dize, the loss of many thousand seamen, and others, many 
of whom many worlds are not worthy ? 

" But, lastly, if any be yet zealous of kindling this fire 
for God, &c. I beseech that gentleman, whoever he be, to 
lay himself in the opposite scale, with one of the fairest 
buds that ever the sun of righteousness cherished, Josiah, 
that most zealous and melting-hearted reformer, who would 
to war, and against warnings, and fell in most untimely 
death and lamentations, and now^ stands, a pillar of salt to 
all succeeding generations. 

'" Now, with your patience, a word to these nations at 



276 MEMOIR OF 

war, (occasion of yours,) the Narragansefs and Long- 
Islanders, I know them both experimentally, and therefore 
pray you to remember, 

*' First, that the Narragansets and Mohawks are the twa 
great bodies of Indians in this country, and they are con- 
federates, and long have been, and they both yet are 
friendly and peaceable to the English, I do humbly con- 
ceive, that if ever God calls us to a just war with either of 
them, he calls us to make sure of the one to a friend. It 
is true some distaste was lately here amongst them, but they 
parted friends, and some of the Narragansets went home 
with them, and I fear that both these and the Long-Island- 
ers and Mohegans, and all the natives of the land, may, 
upon the sound of a defeat of the English, be induced 
easily to join each with other against us. 

" 2. The Narragansets, as they were the first, so they 
have been long confederates with you ; they have been 
true, in all the Pequod wars, to you. They occasioned the 
Mohegans to come in, too, and so occasioned the Pequods* 
downfall. 

** 3. I cannot yet learn, that ever it pleased the Lord to 
permit the Narragansets to stain their hands with any 
English blood, neither in open hostilities nor secret mur- 
ders, as bath Pequods and Long-Islanders did, and Mohe- 
gans also, in the Pequod wars. It is true they are barba- 
rians, but their greatest offences against the English have 
been matters of money, or petty revenging of themselves, 
on some Indians, upon extreme provocations, but God kept 
them clear of our blood. 

*' 4. For the people, many hundred English have exper- 
imented them to be inclined to peace and love with the 
English nation. 

" Their late famous long-lived Canonicus so lived and 
died, and in the same most honorable manner and solem- 
nity (in their way) as you laid to sleep your prudent peace- 
maker, Mr. Winthrop, did they honor this, their prudent 
and peaceable prince. His son, Mexham*, inherits his 
spirit. Yea, through all their towns and countries, how 
frequently do many, and oft-times one Englishman, travel 
alone with safety and loving kindness ! 

* This name is spelled in several different ways. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 277 

"'' The cause and root of all the present mischief, is the 
pride of two barbarians, Ascassassotic, the Long-Island 
sachem, and Ninigret, of the Narraganset. The former 
is proud and foolish ; the latter is proud and fierce. I 
have not seen him these many years, yet from their sober 
men I hear he pleads, 

" First, that Ascassassotic, a very inferior sachem, bear- 
ing himself upon the English, hath slain three or four of 
his people, and since that, sent him challenges and darings 
to fight, and mend himself 

" 2. He, Ninigret, consulted, by solemn messengers, 
with the chief of the English Governors, Major Endicott, 
then Governor of the Massachusetts, who sent him an im- 
plicit consent to right himself, upon which they all plead 
that the English have just occasion of displeasure. 

" 3. After he had taken revenge upon the Long-Island- 
ers, and brought away about fourteen captives, divers of 
their chief women, yet he restored them all again, upon 
the mediation and desire of the English. 

" 4. After this peace made, the Long-Islanders, pretend- 
ing to visit Ninigret, at Block-Island, slaughtered of his 
Narragansets near thirty persons, at midnight, two of them 
of great note, especially Wepiteammoc's son, to whom 
Ninigret was uncle. 

" 5. In the prosecution of this war, although he had 
drawn down the Islanders to his assistance, yet, upon pro- 
testation of the English against his proceedings, he 
retreated, and dissolved his army. 
" Honored Sirs, 

*' 1. I knov/ it is said the Long-Islanders are subjects; 
but I have heard this greatly questioned, and, indeed, I 
question whether any Indians in this country, remain- 
ing barbarous and pagan, may with truth or honor be called 
the English subjects. 

" 2. But grant them subjects, what capacity hath their late 
massacre of the Narragansets, with whom they had made 
peace, without the English consent, though still under the 
English name, put them into? 

" 3. All Indians are extremely treacherous ; and if to 

their own nation, for private ends, revolting to strangers, 

what will they do upon the sound of one defeat of the 

English, or the trade of killing English cattle, and persons, 

24* 



^78 MEMOIR O F 

and plunder, which will, most certainly be the trade, if'afiy 
considerable party escape alive, as mine eyes beheld in the 
Dutch war. 

" But, I beseech you, say your thoughts and the thoughts 
of your wives and little ones, and the thoughts of all English, 
and of God's people in England, and the thoughts of his 
Highness and Council, (tender ofthese parts,) if, for the sake 
of a few inconsiderable pagans, and beasts, wallowing in 
idleness, stealing, lying, whoring, treacherous witchcrafts, 
blasphemies, and idolatries, all that the gracious hand of 
the Lord hath so wonderfully planted in the wilderness, 
should be destroyed. 

" How much nobler were it, and glorious to the name 
of God and your own, that no pagan should dare to use the 
name of an English subject, who comes not out, in some 
degree, from barbarism to civility, in forsaking their filthy 
nakedness, in keeping some kind of cattle, which yet your 
councils and commands may tend to, and, as pious and 
prudent deceased Mr. Winthrop said, that civility may be 
a leading step to Christianity, is the humble desire of your 
most unfeigned in all services of love, 

-ROGER WILLIAMS, 
of Providence colony, 

President. '' 

Though Mr. Williams had succeeded in restoring the 
regular operation of the government, there were not want- 
ing individuals who were uneasy and restive under re- 
straints. A person, about this time, sent a paper to the 
town of Providence, affirming " that it was blood-guiltiness, 
and against the rule of the Gospel, to execute judgment 
upon transgressors against the private or public weal." 
This principle struck at the foundation of all civil society. 
There were, as we may easily suppose, some individuals, 
who had been drawn to Rhode-Island by the prospect of 
enjoying liberty, and who would gladly have cast off all 
restraint, and revelled in unbounded license. 

Mr. Williams could not remain silent, while such senti- 
ments were avowed. He accordingly wrote the following 
letter to the town. It is, in every respect, worthy of him. 
It presents, briefly, his principles of civil and religious lib- 
eity, llh. strated by a happy comparison, and carefully 



tt G E n W I I. L I A M S. '270 

gaai'ded by limitations, exact, clear, and in harmony with 
the dictates of reason and Scripture. The duty of civil 
obedience is maintained, as decisively as Mr. Cotton him- 
self could have wished ; while the rights of conscience are 
declared, with a precision, an enlarged comprehension of 
mind, and a liberality of feeling, of which no other exam- 
ple could be found at that early day. This letter is a suffi- 
cient reply to all the allegations against Mr. Williams of a 
spirit hostile to the civil peace ; andit may be added, that 
the church which he founded at Providence, and all the 
churches of the same faith which have since multiplied 
over the land, have maintained precisely the same views of 
civil and religious duties and rights : 

" That ever I should speak or write a tittle that tends to 
such an infinite liberty of conscience, is a mistake, and 
which! have ever disclaimed and abhorred. To prevent 
such mistakes, I at present shall only propose this case : 
There goes many a ship to sea, with many hundred souls 
'in one ship, whose weal and woe is common, and is a true 
picture of a commonwealth, or a human combination or 
society. It hath fallen out sometimes that both Papists 
and Protestants, Jews and Turks, may be embarked in one 
ship; upon which supposal I affirm, that all the liberty of 
conscience, that ever I pleaded for, turns upon these two 
hinges : that none of the Papists, Protestants, Jews or 
Turks, be forced to come to the ship's prayers or worship, 
nor compelled from their own particular prayers or worship, 
if they practise any. I further add, that I never denied, 
that notwithstanding this liberty, the commander of this 
ship ought to command the ship's course, yea, and also 
command that justice, peace and sobriety be kept and 
practised, both among the seamen and all the passengers. 
If any of the seamen refuse to perform their service, or 
passengers to pay their freight ; if any refuse to help, in 
person or purse, towards the common charges or defence ; 
if any refuse to obey the common laws and orders of the 
ship, concerning their common peace or preservation ; if 
any shall mutiny and rise up against their commanders 
and officers ; if any should preach or write that there 
ought to be no commanders or officers, because all are 
equal in Christ, therefore no masters nor officers, no laws 



2S0 MEMOIR OF 

nor orders, no corrections nor punishments ; I say, I never 
denied, but in such cases, whatever is pretended, the com- 
mander or commanders may judge, resist, compel and 
punish such transgressors, according to their deserts and 
merits. This, if seriously and honestly minded, may, if it 
so please the Father of Lights, let in some light to such as 
willingly shut not their eyes. 

" I remain studious of your common peace and liberty. 

ROGER WILLIAMS." 



ROGER W I I, I, I A M S. 28 1 



CHAPTER XXI. 



Troubles in Rhode- Island — William Harris — Quakers — severe laws 
against thein in other colonies — conduct of Rhode-Island — Mr. 
Williams and Mr. Harris — Mr. Williams not re-elected as President. 

The following letter from Mr. Williams to Mr. Winthrop 
is chiefly on his common theme, the Indians : 

" To my honored, kind friend, Mr. Winthrop, at Pequod, 
these present. 

''Providence, the 26, 2, 55, (so called.) 
'■' Sir, 

** Loving respects to you both presented, wishing you a 
joyful spring after all your sad and gloomy, sharp and bit- 
ter winter blasts and snows. Sir, one of your friends among 
the Narraganset sachems, Mexham, sends this messenger 
unto me and prays me to write to you for your help about 
a gun, which Kittatteash, Uncas his son, hath lately taken 
from this bearer, Ahauansquatuck, out of his house at Paw- 
chauquet. He will not own any offence he gave him, but 
that he is subject to Mexham, though possibly Kittatteash 
may allege other causes, yea and true also. I doubt not 
of your loving eye on the matter, as God shall please to 
crive you opportunity. Sir, the last first day divers of Bos- 
ton merchants were with me, (about Sergeant Holsey run 
from Boston hither, and a woman after him, who lays her 
great belly to him.) They tell me, that by a bark come 
from Virginia, they are informed of God's merciful hand in 
the safe arrival of Major Sedgwick and that fleet in the 
West of England, and that General Penn was not yet gone 
out, but riding (all things ready) in Torbay, waiting for 
the word ; and by letters from good and great friends in 
England, I understand there are like|to be great agitations 
in this country, if that fleet succeed. 

" Sir, a hue and cry came to my hand lately from the Gov- 
ernor at Boston, after two youths, one run from Captain 
Oliver, whom I lighted on and have returned ; another from 
James Bill, of Boston, who I hear past through our town, and 



282 MEMOIR OF 

said he was bound for Pequod. His name is James Pitnie ; 
he hath on a blackish coat and hat, and a pair of greenish 
breeches and green knit stockings. I would now (with 
very many thanks) have returned you your Jesuit's Max- 
ims, but I was loth to trust them in so wild a hand, nor 
some tidings which I have from England. These mer- 
chants tell me, that Blake was gone against the Duke of 
Legorne, and had sent for ten frigates more. Sir, the God 
of peace fill your soul with that strange kind of peace which 
passeth all understanding. 

'' So prays, Sir, 

" Your unworthy R. W." 

Mr. Williams, being now invested with the office of 
President, watched over the interests of the colony with his 
usual vigilance and zeal. There was an urgent need of all 
his wisdom and firmness. A disposition to abuse the liberty 
of conscience, was one of the evils which disturbed the col- 
ony. Mr. William Harris " sent his writings to the main 
and to the island, against all earthly powers, parliaments, 
laws, charters, magistrates, prisons, punishments, rates, yea, 
?-~?J:rL2t all kings and princes, under the notion that the 
people should shortly cry out, 'No lords, no masters,' and 
in open Court protested, before the whole colony Assembly, 
that he would maintain his writings with his blood."* 

The avowal of such sentiments might well alarm the As- 
sembly, not only for the peace of the colony, but for its 
character in the mother country. They accordingly ap- 
pointed a committee, says Mr. Backus, " to deal with Mr. 
Harris." 

Although the several towns were re-united in the gov- 
ernment, yet individuals, who were royalists in principle, 
refused to obey it, and created factions. Complaints were 
made through Mr. Clarke, to the Protector ; but Cromwell 
was too busy with concerns at home, to give much atten- 
tion to the colonies. He addressed the following letter to 
the colony : t 

* Backus, vol, i. p. 302. George Fox digged out of his Burrowes, 
p. 14. 

t The General Assembly voted, that Mr. Williams should keep 
Cromv/ell's letter and the charter in his possession, in behalf of the 
Qolony. 



U O G E K WILLI A IVf S. ^8S 

'' Gentlemen, 

" Your agent here hath represented unto us some par- 
ticulars concerning your government, which you judge 
necessary to be settled by us here, but by reason of other 
great and weighty affairs of the commonwealth, we have 
been necessitated to defer the consideration of them to fur- 
ther opportunity ; in the mean time, we are willing to let 
you know, that you were to proceed in your government 
according to the tenor of your charter, formerly granted 
on that behalf, taking care of the peace and safety of those 
plantations, that neither through intestine commotions or 
foreign invasions, there do arise any detriment or dishonor 
to their commonvv'ealth or yourselves, as far as you by your 
care and diligence can prevent. And as for the things that 
are before us, they shall, as soon as the other occasions will 
permit, receive a just and sufficient determination. And 
so we bid )'ou farewell, and rest, 

" Your very loving friend, 

-OLIVER, P. 
'■March 29, 1655. 

" To our trusty and well beloved the President, Assistants 
and inhabitants of Rhode-Island, together with Narragan- 
set Bay, in New-England," 

At the session of the Assembly, June 28, an act was 
passed, founded on the Protector's letter, in uhich it was 
enacted, that " if any person or persons be found, by the 
examination and judgment of the General Court of Com- 
missioners, to be a ring-leader or ring-leaders of factions or 
divisions among us, he or they shall be sent over at his or 
their own charges, as prisoners, to receive his or their trial 
or sentence, at the pleasure of his Highness, and the Lords 
of his Council." 

This act proves, that the Assembly, while they recog- 
nized the rights of conscience, were resolved to enforce civil 
obedience. It produced the desired effect. Mr. Codding- 
ton soon after signed a public declaration of his submission 
to the government of the colony, as now united, and he and 
Mr. Dyre subscribed, in the presence of Mr. Williams and 
others, an agreement, by which the long-standing feud be- 
tween them was amicably settled. Mr. Harris, also, felt 



5284 MEMOIR OF 

the genial influence of the better spirit which now prevailed,- 
and in the words of Mr. Backus, " cried up government and 
magistrates, as much as he had cried them down before." 

In November, 1655, Mr. Williams wrote the following 
letter to the General Court of Massachusetts, in which he 
remonstrated, though in a courteous tone, against the dis- 
orders which still continued at Warwick and Pawtuxet, and 
which were countenanced, if not fomented, by Massachu- 
setts. We learn from this letter, and from other sources, 
that the inhabitants of Rhode-Island were not allowed to 
procure arms and ammunition from Boston, though they 
were exposed to attacks from the savages, who were abun- 
dantly supplied from various quarters.'* Mr. Williams 
modestly alludes to his sufferings, when he attempted to 
pass through Massachusetts, at his last embarkation for 
England. With all these causes of complaint, the mildness 
of this letter must be deemed a favorable evidence of a gen- 
tle and pacific temper. The solemn confession, that it 
might be better for Rhode-Island to be placed under the 
sway of Massachusetts, certainly does honor to his feelings, 
whatever may be thought of its wisdom : 

'^ Copy of a letter from Mr. Roger Williams, President of 
Providence Plantations, to the General Court of Magistrates 
and Deputies assembled, at Boston. 

* Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 172, after stating, tiitit an application from 
Newport, for powder and other ammunition was rejected, says. '' it 
was an error, (in state policy at last) not to support them, for though 
they were desperately erroneous, and in such distractions among 
themselves as portended their ruin, yet, if the Indians should prevail 
against them, it would be a great advantage to the Indians and 
danger to the whole country." About the year 1655, Mr. Clarke sent 
over from England four barrels of powder, and eight of shot and 
bullets, which were consigned to Mr. Williams, and left, by order 
of the General Assembly, in his possession. While provision was 
thus made for defence against the Indians, measures were adopted 
to prevent hostilities. At a town meeting in Providence, June 24, 
1655, at which Mr. Williams was moderator, it was voted, that if 
any person should sell a gallon of wine or spirits to an Indian, either 
directly or indirectly, he should forfeit six pounds, one half to the 
informer, and the other half to the town. Among the measures 
adopted for defence, was the following order, passed in town meet- 
ing, March 6, 1655-6 : " Ordered, that liberty is given to as many as 
please to erect a fortification upon the Stamper's Hill, or about their 
own houses." 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 285 

^* Providence, 15, 9wo. 55, (so called.) 

" Much honored Sirs, 

*' It is my humble and earnest petition unto God and you, 
that you may so be pleased to exercise command over your 
own spirits, that you may not mind myself nor the English 
of these parts (unworthy with myself of your eye) but only 
that face of equity (English and Christian) which I hum- 
bly hope may appear in these representations following. 

"First, may it please you to remember, that concerning 
the town of Warwick, (in this colony) there lies a suit of 
c^2000 damages against you before his Highness and the 
Lords of his Council ; I doubt not, if you so please, but 
that (as Mr. Winslow and myself had well nigh ordered it) 
some gentlemen from yourselves and some from Warwick, 
deputed, miy friendly and easily determine that affair be- 
tween you. 

" Secondly, the Indians which pretend your name at 
Warwick and Pawtuxol, (and yet live as barbarously, if not 
more than any in the country) please you to know their 
insolencies upon ourselves and cattle (unto =£20 damages 
per annum) are insufferable by English spirits; and please 
you to give credence, that to all these they pretend your 
name, and affirm that they dare not (for offending you) agree 
with us, nor come to rules of righteous neighborhood, only 
they know you favor us not and therefore send us for redress 
unto you. 

" Thirdly, concerning four English families at Pawtuxet, 
may it please you to remember that two controversies they 
have long (under your name) maintained with us, to a con- 
stant obstructing of all order and authority amongst us. 

" To our complaint about our lands, they lately have 
professed a willingness to arbitrate, but to obey his Highness' 
authority in this charter, they sa^, they dare not for your 
sakes, though they live not by your laws, nor bear your 
common charges, nor ours, but evade both under color of 
your authority. 

" Honored Sirs, I cordially profess it before the Most 
High, that I believe it, if not only they but ourselves and 
all the whole country, by joint consent, were subject to your 
government, it might be a rich mercy ; but as things yet are, 
and since it pleased first the Parliament, and then the Lord 

25 



286 MEMOIR OF 

Admiral and Committee for Foreign Plantations, and smce 
the Council of State, and lastly the Lord Protector and his 
Council, to continue us as a distinct colony, yea, and since 
it hath pleased yourselves, by public letters and references 
to us from your public courts, to own the authority of his 
Highness amongst us ; be pleased to consider how unsuita- 
ble it is for yourselves (if these families at Pawtuxct plesd 
truth) to be the obstructers of all orderly proceedings amongst 
us ; for I humbly appeal to your own wisdom and expe- 
rience, how unlikely it is for a people to be compelled to 
order and common charges, when others in their bosoms, 
are by such (seeming) partiality exempted from both. 

" And, therefore, (lastly) be pleased to know, that there 
are (upon the point) but two families which are so obstruc- 
tive and destructive to an equal proceeding of civil order 
amongst us ; for one of these four families, Stephen Arnold, 
desires to be uniform with us ; a second, Zacharie Rhodes, 
being in the way of dipping is (potentially) banished by you. 
Only William Arnold and William Carpenter, (very far, 
also, in religion, from you, if you knew all) they have some 
color, yet in a late conference, they all plead that all the 
obstacle is their offending of yourselves. 

" Fourthly, whereas, (I humbly conceive) with the peo- 
ple of this colony your commerce is as great as with any in 
the country, and our dangers (being a frontier people to the 
barbarians) are greater than those of other colonies, and 
the ill consequences to yourselves would be not a few nor 
small, and to the whole land, were we first massacred or 
mastered by them. I pray your equal and favorable reflec- 
tion upon that your law, which prohibits us to buy of you 
all means of our necessary defence of our lives and families, 
(yea in this most bloody and raassacreing time.) 

" We are informed that tickets have rarely been denied 
to any English of the country ; yea, the barbarians (though 
notorious in lies) if they profess subjection, they are fur- 
nished ; only ourselves, by former and later denial, seem 
to be devoted to the Indian shambles and massacres. 

" The barbarians all the land over, are filled with artil- 
lery and ammunition from the Dutch, openly and horridly, 
and from all the English over the country, (by stealth.) I 
know they abound so wonderfully, that their activity and 
insolence is grown so high that they daily consult, and 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 287 

hope, and threaten to render us slaves, as they long since 
(and now most horribly) have made the Dutch. 

" For myself (as through God's goodness) I have refused 
the gain of thousands by such a murderous trade, and think 
no law yet extant, amongst yourselves or us, secure enough 
against such villany ; so am I loth to see so many hun- 
dreds (if not some thousands) in this colony, destroyed like 
fools and beasts without resistance. I grieve that so much 
blood should cry against yourselves, yea, and I grieve that 
(at this instant by these ships) this cry and the premises 
should now trouble his Highness and his Council. For the 
seasonable preventing of which, is this humble address pre- 
sented to your wisdom, by him who desires to be 
" Your unfeigned and faithful servant, 

''ROGER WILLIAMS, 
^^ Of Providence Plantations, President. 

" Hon. Sirs, since my letter, it comes into my heart to 
pray your leave to add a word as to myself, viz. at my last 
return from England I presented your then honored Gov- 
ernor, Mr. Bellingham, with an order of the Lords of the 
Council, for my free taking ship or landing at your ports, 
unto which it pleased Mr. Bellingham to send me his assent 
in writing ; I humbly crave the recording of it by yourselves, 
lest forgetfulness hereafter, again put me upon such dis- 
tresses as, God knows, I suffered when I last past through 
your colony to our native country.'' 

The following letter to Mr. Winthrop, belongs to this 
period : 

" To his much honored, kind friend, Mr. John Winthrop, 
at Pequod or elsewhere, these presents. 

^'Providence, 21, 12, 55-6, [so called.) 

. *'Sir, 

"This opportunity makes me venture this salutation, 
though we hear question of your being at Pequod. These 
friends can say more of affairs than I can write. I have 
letters from England of proceedings there, which yet are 
not come ; some I have received, which tell me, that the 
Lord hath yet created peace, although the sword is yet 
forced (by garrisons) to enforce it. I cannot hear of open 
v/ars with France, but only with Spain, and that the prose* 



288 MEMOIR OF 

cution of that West India expedition is still with all possible 
vigor on both sides intended. This diversion against the 
Spaniards hath turned the face and thoughts of many Eng- 
lish ; so that the saying of thousands now is, crown the 
Protector with gold, though the sullen yet cry, crown him 
with thorns. The former two or three years with plenty 
unthankfully received in England ; the Lord sent abun- 
dance cf waters this last summer, which spoiled their corn 
over most parts of the land. Sir Henry Vane being retired 
to his own private, in Lincolnshire, hath now published his 
observations as to religion ; he hath sent me one of his books, 
(though yet at Boston.) His father is dead, and the inherit- 
ance falls to him, and 10 or 12,000 more than should if his 
father had lived but a month longer ; but though his father 
cast him off, yet he hath not lost in temporals, by being cast 
off for God. Our acquaintance, Major Sedgwick, is said to 
be successor to unsuccessful Venables, cast into the tower. 
Your brother Stephen succeeds Major General Harrison. 
The Pope endeavors the uniting of all his slaves for his 
guard, fearing th€ heretics. The Lord knows whether 
Archer (upon the reign of Christ) said true, 'that yet the 
Pope, before his downfall, must recover England; and the 
protestant countries revolted from him.' Sir, we are sure 
all flesh is grass, and only the word of the Lord endures 
forever. Sir, you once kindly intended to quench a fire 
between Mr. Coddington and others, but now it is come 
to public trial. We hear the Dutch fire is not quenched. 
I fear this year will be stormy ; only may the most gracious 
Lord by all drive and draw us to himself, in whom. Sir, I 
desire to be ever 

''Yours, R. W." 

The letter of November 15, to the General Court of Mas- 
sachusetts, did not produce any favorable change in her 
measures. Mr. Williams afterwards wrote to the Governor, 
Mr. Endicott, who invited him to visit Boston. The fol- 
lowing address to the General Court was prepared, in which 
some of the same topics are again touched : 

" Copy of a letter from Providence Plantations to the 
General Court of the Massachusetts. 

^'Providence, 12, 3, ^Q, {so called.) 

^^ May it please this much honored Assembjj to remem« 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 289 

ber, that, as an officer and in the name of Providence colo- 
ny, I presented you with our humble requests before winter, 
ir vO which not receiving answer, I addressed myself this 
spring, to your much honored Governor, who was pleased 
to advise our sending of some of Providence to your As- 
sembly. 

" Honored Sirs, our first request (in short) was and is, 
for your favorable consideration of the long and lamentable 
condition of the town of Warwick, which hath been thus: 
they are so dangerously and so vexatiously intermingled 
with the barbarians, that I have long admired the wonder- 
ful power of God in restraining and preventing very great 
fires of mutual slaughters, breaking forth between them. 

" Your wisdoms know the inhuman insultations of these 
wild creatures, and you may be pleased, also, to imagine, 
that they have not been sparing of your name as the pa- 
tron of all their wickedness against our English men, women, 
and children, and cattle to the yearly damage of 60, 80 and 
100 pounds. 

" The remedy is (under God) only your pleasure, that 
Pumham shall come to an agreement with the town or col- 
ony, and that some convenient way and time be set for 
their removal. 

" And that your wisdom may see just grounds for such 
your willingness, be pleased to be informed of a reality of 
a solemn covenant between this town of Warwick and 
Pumham, unto which, notwithstanding that he pleads his 
being drawn to it by the awe of his superior sachems, yet 
I humbly offer that what was done, was according to the 
law and tenor of the natives, (I take it) in all New-Eng- 
land and America, viz. that the inferior sachems and sub- 
jects shall plant and remove at the pleasure of the highest 
and supreme sachems, and I humbly conceive that it pleaseth 
the Most High and Only Wise to make use of such a bond 
of authority over them, without which, they could not long 
subsist in human society, in this wild condition wherein 
they are. 

" 2. Please you not to be insensible of the slippery and 
dangerous condition of this their intermingled cohabitation. 
I am humbly confident, that all the English towns and 
plantations in all New-England, put together, suffer not 
such molestation from the natives, as this one town and 
25* 



^90 MEMOIR OF 

people. It is so great and so oppressive, that I have daily 
feared the tidings of some public fire and mischief 

"3. Be pleased to review this copy from the Lord Ad- 
miral, and that this English town of Warwick should pro- 
ceed, also that if any of yours were there planted, they 
should, by yt)ur authority, be removed. And we humbly 
conceive, that if the English (whose removes are difficult 
and chargeable) how much more these wild ones, who re- 
move with little more trouble and damage than the wild 
beasts of the wilderness. 

" 4. Please you to be informed, that this small neck 
(wherein they keep and mingle fields with the English) is 
a very den of wickedness, where they not only practise the 
horrid barbarisms of all kind of whoredoms, idolatries, con- 
jurations, but living without all exercise of actual authority, 
and getting store of liquors (to our grief) there is a confluence 
and rendezvous of all the wildest and most licentious na- 
tives and practices of the whole country. 

" 5. Beside satisfaction to Pumham and the form.er in- 
habitants of this neck, there is a competitor who must also 
be satisfied ; another sachem, one Nawwushawsuck, who 
(living with Ousamaquin) lays claim to this place, and are 
at daily feud with Pumham (to my knowledge) about the 
title and lordship of it. Hostility is daily threatened. 

*' Our second request concerns two or three English 
families at Pawtuxet, who, before our charter, subjected 
themselves unto your jurisdiction. It is true, there are 
many grievances between many of the town of Providence 
and them, and these, I humbly conceive, may best be 
ordered to be composed by reference. 

" But (2.) we have formerly made our addresses and now 
do, for your prudent rem.oval of this great and long obstruc- 
tion to all due order and regular proceedings among us, viz. 
the refusal of these families (pretending your name) to 
conform with us unto his Highness' authority amongst us. 

" 3. Your wisdom experimentally knows how apt men are 
to stumble at such an exemption from all duties and services, 
from all rates and charges, either with yourselves or us. 

" 4. This obstruction is so great and constant, that (with- 
out your prudent removal of it) it is impossible that either 
his Highness or yourselves can expect such satisfaction and 
observance from us as we desire to render. 



ft O G E R WILLIAMS, 29^1 

*' Lastly, as before, we promised satisfaction to the natives 
at Warwick, (and shall all possible ways endeavor their 
content) so we humbly offer, as to these our countrymen, 
First, as to grievances depending, that references may set- 
tle them. Secondly, for the future, the way will be open 
for their enjoyment of votes and privileges of choosing or 
being chosen, to any office in town or colony. 

" Our third request is, for your favorable leave to us to 
buy of your merchants, four or more barrels of powder 
yearly, with some convenient proportion of artillery, con- 
sidering our hazardous frontier situation to these barbarians, 
who, from their abundant supply of arms from the Dutch, 
(and perfidious English, all the land over) are full of our 
artillery, which hath rendered them exceedingly insolent, 
provoking and threatening, especially the inlanders, which 
have their supply from the fort of Aurania. We have been 
esteemed by some of you, as your thorny hedge on this side 
of you; if so, yet a hedge to be maintained; if as out sentinels, 
yet not to be discouraged. And if there be a jealousy of the 
ill use of such a favor, please you to be assured that a credible 
person in each town shall have the disposal and managing 
of such supplies, according to the true intent and purpose. 

" For the obtaining of these, our just and necessary peti- 
tions, we have no inducement or hope from ourselves, only 
we pray you to remember, that the matters prayed, are no 
way dishonorable to yourselves, and we humbly conceive, 
do greatly promote the honor and pleasure of his Highness, 
yea, of the Most High, also; and lastly, such kindnesses 
will be obligations on us to study to declare ourselves, upon 
all occasions, 

" Your most humble and faithful servants, 

" ROGER WILLIAMS, President. 

"In the name, and by the appointment, of Providence 
colony. 

" Honored Gentlemen, 

" I pray your patience to one word relating to myself^ 
only. Whereas, upon an order from the Lords of his High- 
ness' Council, for my future security in taking ships and 
landing in your ports, it pleased your honored then Gover- 
nor, Mr. Bellingham, to obey that order under his own 
hand, I now pray the confirmation of it, from one word of 
this honored Court assembled." 



*J92 MEMOIR OP 

A few days after, Mr. Williams addressed the following 
letter to the General Court. It bears the unwonted date 
of Boston, and it breathes a gratified feeling : 

" Copy of a letter from Mr. Roger Williams, to the Gen- 
eral Court. 

" Boston, 17, 3, 56, {so called.) 
" May it please this much honored Assembly, 

" I do humbly hope, that your own breasts and the pub- 
lic, shall reap the fruit of your great gentleness and patience 
in these barbarous transactions, and I do cordially promise, 
for myself, (and all I can persuade w^ith) to study gratitude 
and faithfulness to your service. I have debated with 
Pumham (and some of the natives helping with me) who 
shewed him the vexatious life he lives in, your great respect 
and care toward him, by which he may abundantly mend 
himself and be united in some convenience unto their neigh- 
borhood and your service. But I humbly conceive, in his 
case, that dies et quies sanant hominem, and he must have 
some longer breathing, for he tells me that the appearance 
of this competitor Nawwushawsuck, hath stabbed him. May 
you, therefore, please to grant him and me some longer time 
of conference, either until your next general assembling, 
or longer, at your pleasure. 

" My other requests I shall not be importune to press 
on your great affairs, but shall make my address unto your 
Secretary, to receive, by him, your pleasure. 
" Honored gentlemen, 

" Your humble and thankful servant, H.. W." 

This year is made remarkable by the arrival at Boston, 
of several persons, of the new sect called Cluakers.* They 

"^ This religious society, sa\'s Hannah Adams, '• began to be dis- 
tin'Txiished about the middle of the seventeenth century. Their doc- 
trines were first promulgated in England, by George Fox, about the 
year 1647. for which he v.-as imprisoned at Nottinghnm, in the year 
1G49, and the year following at Derby. The appellation of Quakers, 
was given them by way of contempt ; some say, on account of their 
tremblings under tlie impres.^ion of divine things ; but they say it was 
first given them by one of the magistrates, who committed George 
Fox to prison, on account of his bidding him and those about him to 
tremble a.t the word of the Lord." They have since called them- 
selves Friends. The wild fanaticism of sonie of the caily adherents 
of the sect, no more resembles the quiet demeanor of the pious 
Friends of the present day, than the policy of Massachusetts in 1656, 
wss like the spirit of our own times. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 293 

were imprisoned and banished. The books which they 
brought with them were seized and burnt. Severe laws 
were enacted to exclude them from the Commonwealth. 
/"In October, 1656, (says Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 181,) " An 
1 act passed, laying a penalty of one hundred pounds upon 
' the master of any vessel who should bring a known Qua- 
ker into any part of the colony, and requiring him to 
I give security to carry them back again ; that the Quaker 
■ should be immediately sent to the house of correction, 
i and whipped twenty stripes, and afterwards kept to hard 
I labor until transportation. They also laid a penalty of 
I five pounds for importing, and the like for dispersing, 
] Quaker books, and severe penalties for defending their 
I heretical opinions. And the next year, an additional law 
i was made, by which all persons were subjected to the pen- 
ialty of forty shillings for every hour's entertainment given 
;■ to any known Quaker ; and any Quaker, after the first 
conviction, if a man, was to lose one ear, and the second 
I time the other ; a woman, each time to be severely whipped, 
J and the third time, men or women, to have their tongues 
r bored through with a red hot iron, and every Quaker, who 
I should become such in the colony, was subjected to the like 
I punishments. In May, 1658, a penalty of ten shillings was 
I laid on every person present at a Quaker meeting, and five 
I pounds upon every one speaking at such a meeting. Not- 
1 withstanding all this severity, the number of Quakers, as 
• might well have been expected, increasing rather than dimin- 
ishing, in October following, a further law was made for 
punishing with death all Quakers, who should return into 
the jurisdiction after banishment." 

By this sanguinary law, which passed the Court by a 
majority of one vote only, four persons were afterwards ex- 
ecuted, and a large number were imprisoned, whipped, 
fined and banished, until an order from the King, Charles 
II. in 1661, put an end to these proceedings. The con- 
duct of some of these persons was scandalous,* and deserved 

* " At Boston, one George Wilson, and at Cambridge, Elizabeth 
Horton, went crying through the streets, that the Lord v/as coming 
with fire and sword to plead with them. Thomas Newhouse went 
into the meeting-house at Boston with a couple of glass bottles, and 
broke them before the congregation, and threatened. ' Thus will the 
Lord break you in pieces.' Another time. M. Brewster came in with 



294 M E ]\I O I R OF 

punishment, as offences against civil order and decency ; 
but nothing can justify the severity with which some of 
them were treated. The impolicy of persecution was fully 
displayed on this occasion ; for the Quakers multiplied, in 
proportion as they were threatened and punished. 

The other united colonies passed severe laws against the 
Quakers ; and they endeavored to prevail on Rhode-Island 
to unite in this general persecution. But she remained 
true to her principles. The General Assembly, which met 
at Portsmouth, March 13, 1657, returned an answer to the 
commissioners of the united colonies, in which they held 
this language : 

" Whereas freedom of different consciences to be pro- 
tected from enforcements, was the principal ground of our 
charter, both v/ith respect to our humble suit for it, as also 
to the true intent of the honorable and renowned Parliament 
of England, in granting of the same to us, which freedom 
we still prize, as the greatest happiness that men can pos- 
sess in this world, therefore we shall, for the preservation 
of our civil peace and order, the more especially take notice 
that those people, and any others that are here, or shall 
come among us, be impartially required, and to our utmost 
constrained, to perform all civil duties requisite. And in 
case they refuse it, we resolve to make use of the first op- 
portunity to inform our agent, residing in England." 

The commissioners were not satisfied with this reply, 
and the next autumn they wrote again to the Assembly. 
An answer was returned, dated October 13, 1657, which, 
while it expresses disapprobation of the conduct of some of 
the Quakers, unfolds the Rhode-Island doctrine concerning 
liberty of conscience, and contains some excellent remarks 
on the good effects of toleration in allaying sectarian zeal : 

" As concerning these Quakers (so called) which are 
now among us, we have no law among us whereby to punish 
any for only declaring by words, &c. their minds and un- 
derstandings concerning the things and ways of God, as to 
salvation and an eternal condition. And we find, more- 
over, that in those places where these people, aforesaid, in 



her face besmeared, and as black as a coal. Deborah Wilson went 
through the streets of Salem, naked as she came into the world, for 
which she was well whipped " — Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 187, 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 295 

this colony, are most of all suffered to declare themselves 
freely, and are only opposed by arguments in discourse, 
there they least of all desire to come ; and we are informed, 
that they begin to loathe this place, for that they are not 
opposed by the civil authority, but with all patience and 
meekness are suffered to say over their pretended revela- 
tions and admonitions, nor are they like or able to gain many 
here to their way. And surely we find, that they delight 
to be persecuted by the civil powers, and when they are so, 
they are like to gain more by the conceit of their patient 
sufferings, than by consent to their pernicious sayings." 
The letter then expressed a belief, that their doctrines were 
dangerous to civil government, and promised, that at the 
next General Assembly, the subject should be considered, 
and proper measures adopted to prevent any '' bad effects 
of their doctrines and endeavors."* 

This letter was not suited to the prevailing opinions of 
that day. The other colonies were incensed by the inflex- 
ible adherence of Rhode-Island to the principles of her 
founder. The commissioners again wrote to the General 
Assembly, virtually requiring Rhode-Island to unite in a 
general persecution, under the penalty of being herself put 
under the ban of an excommunication from all commercial 
intercourse with the other colonies. This attempt to force 
Rhode-Island into measures subversive of her own institu- 
tions, and abhorrent to her feelings, was resisted as resolutely 
as were the threats of the British ministry by a subse- 
quent generation. Rhode-Island adopted the only course 
then left to her. She appealed to the government in Eng- 
land, for protection, while she pursued her settled policy. 
The following letter to Mr. Clarke, the agent of the colony 
in England, throws much light on her condition and rela- 
tions at that time. It was written by a Committee appoint- 
ed bv the General Assembly, at Warwick, November 5, 
165S -.t 

''Worthy Sir, and trusty friend, Mr. Clarke, 
" We have found, not only your ability and diligence, 

* Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 454. — The letter in signed hy Benedict 
Arnold, President; Williain Baulston, Randall Koulden, Arthur 
Fenner, and William Feild. 

t Backus, vol. i. pp. S13-316. 



^96 MEMOIR OF 

but also your love and care to be such concerning the wel- 
fare and prosperity of this colony, since you have been in- 
trusted with the more public affairs thereof, surpassing the 
no small benefit which we had of your presence here at 
home, that we in all straits and incumbrances, are em- 
boldened to repair unto you, for further and continued care, 
counsel and help, finding that your solid and christian de- 
meanor hath gotten no small interest in the hearts of our 
superiors, those noble and worthy senators, with whom you 
had to do in our belialf, as it hath constantly appeared in 
our addresses made unto them ; we have by good and com- 
fortable proofs found, having plentiful experience thereof 
The last year we had laden you with much employment, 
which we were then put upon by reason of some too refractory 
among ourselves, wherein we appealed unto you for advice, 
for the more public manifestation of it, with respect to our 
superiors ; but our intelligence fell short in that great loss 
of the ship, which we concluded here to be cast away. 
We have now a new occasion given us by an old spirit, 
with respect to the colonies round about us, who seem to 
be offended with us, because a sort of people, called by the 
name of Quakers, who are come amongst us, who have 
raised up divers who at present seem to be of their spirit, 
whereat the colonies about us seem to be offended with us, 
being the said people have their liberty with us, are enter- 
tained in our houses, or any of our assemblies ; and for the 
present, we have found no just cause to charge them with 
the breach of the civil peace ; only they are constantly 
going forth amongst them about us, and vex and trouble 
them about their religion and spiritual state, though they 
return with many a foul scar in their bodies for the same. 
And the offence our neighbors take against us, is because 
we take not some course against the said people, either to 
expel them from amongst us, or take such courses against 
them as themselves do, who are in fear lest their religion 
should be corrupted by them. Concerning which dis- 
pleasure that they seem to take, it was expressed to us in 
a solemn letter, written by the commissioners of the united 
colonies at their sitting, us though they would either bring 
us in to act according to their scantling, or else take some 
course to do us a greater displeasure. A copy of which 
letter we have herewith sent unto you, wherein you may 



ii G E R WILLIAMS. ^O? 

perceive how they express themselves ; as also we have 
herewith sent our present answer unto them, to give you 
what light we may in the matter. There is one clause in 
the letter, which plainly implies a threat, though courtly 
expressed, as their manner is ; which we gather to be this, 
that themselves (as we construe it) have been much awed 
in point of subjection to the state of England, lest in case 
they should decline, England might prohibit all trade with 
them, both in point of exportation and importation of any 
commodities, which were a host sufficiently prevalent to 
subdue New England, not being able to subsist : — even so 
they seem to threaten us, by cutting us off from all com- 
merce and trade with them, and thereby to disable us from 
any comfortable subsistence, being that the concourse of 
shipping, and all other sorts of commodities, are universally 
conversant among themselves ; as also knowing that our- 
selves are not in a capacity to send out shipping of our- 
selves, which in great measure is occasioned by their op- 
pressing us, as yourself well knows : — as in many other 
respects, so in this for one, that we cannot have any thing 
from them, for the supply of our necessities, but in effect 
they make the price, both of their commodities and our 
own. Also, because we have no English coin, but only 
that which passeth among these barbarians, and such com- 
modities as are raised by the labor of our hands, as corn, 
cattle, tobacco, &/C. to make payment in, which they will 
have at their own rates, or else not deal with us; whereby 
though they gain extraordinarily by us, yet, for the safe- 
guard of their religion, they may seem to neglect themselves 
in that respect; for what tvill not men do for their God? 
Sir, this is our earnest and pressing request unto you in 
this matter, that as you may perceive by our answer unto 
the united colonies, we fly as our refuge in all civil respects 
to his Highness and honorable Council, as not being sub- 
ject to any other in matters of our civil state, so may it 
please you to have an eye and ear open, in case our ad- 
versaries should speak, to undermine us in our privileges 
granted unto us, and plead our cause in such sort, as that 
we may not be compelled to exercise any civil power over 
men's consciences, so long as human orders in point of 
civility are not corrupted and violated, which our neighbors 
about us do frequently practise, whereof many of us have 
26 



298 M E RI O I R OF 

absolute experience, and judge it to be no less than a ponit 

of ABSOLUTE CRUELTY. 

-JOHN SANFORD, 

Clerk of Assembli/." 

The concluding sentences of this letter are worthy of 
special note, as showing, that the rulers of Rhode-Island 
carefully distinguished between the rights of conscience 
and the duty of obedience to the law^s which guard the 
civil peace. They permitted no disorderly license, and if 
any persons had been guilty, in Rhode-Island, of the acts 
which some individuals, calling themselves Quakers, prac- 
tised in Massachusetts, they would have been punished. 
Mr. Williams, in his subsequent controversy with George 
Fox, expressed his approbation of the punishment of certain 
females in Massachusetts, for their shameless conduct, af- 
firming it to be a perversion of terms to call the punishment 
of such actions, persecution. 

We must now return to Mr. Williams. He held the 
office of President two years. On the 1st of February, 
1657-8, he issued a w^arrant against Mr. William Harris, 
for the alleged crime of opposing the Protector's govern- 
ment. The warrant ordered his arrest and imprisonment, 
for the purpose of sending him to England, in accordance, 
probably, with the act of June, 1655. How far this strong 
measure was deserved by the conduct of Mr. Harris, we 
cannot now determine.* It has been inferred that it was 
not sustained by public opinion, because, at the next elec- 
tion, Mr. Williams was superseded, as President, by Mr. 
Benedict Arnold. It is not improbable, that he was urged 
too far, by zeal to uphold the charter and the Protector's 
authority, and perhaps by personal hostility towards Mr. 
Harris, between whom and himself there was, for many 



* In his '• George Fox digged out of his Burrowes," (p. 20,) Mr. 
Williams says of Mr. Harris, his '-facts and courses others (of no 
small authority and prudence among us, v.nth whom I advised) saw 
to be desperate high treason against the la^ys of cur mother England, 
and of the colony also." He theninquires^ " was it my fury (as you 
call it) or was it not honesty and duty to God and the colony, and 
the higher powers then in England, to act faithfully and impartially 
in the place wherein I then stood sentinel ? " 



ROGER W I L L I A INI S. 299 

years, a very acrimonious feud.* There is, however, no 
very conclusive evidence, that Mr. Williams' conduct, in 
this case, was generally disapproved. He occupied a seat 
in the General Assembly, at intervals, for several years, both 
as an assistant, and as a representative from Providence. 
He was often chosen on important committees, and he 
continued, till his death, to serve the public, in various 
ways, with ability and patriotic zeal.t 

* The origin of this unhappy quarrel is unknown. There were, 
probably, faults on both sides. They both used very angry and un- 
justifiable language towards each other. It appears that Mr. Wil- 
liams so disliked Mr. Harris, that he would not write his name at 
length, but abbreviated it thus, " W. Har :'' This mode of v/riting 
it is seen in the fac simile prefixed to this volume. It seems evident, 
that Mt. Harris had, for some cause, a remarkable aptitude to get 
into difficulties. A letter of the town of Providence, to the '' Honored 
Governor and Council at Newport on Rhode-Island," dated August 
31, 1G68. and signed ■' Shadrach Manton, tov/n clerk," accuses him 
of turbulent conduct. In 1667, there wa^ a great disturbance at 
Providence, excited, as it appears, by him. Two town meetings 
were held, and two sets of deputies chosen to the General Assembly, 
among whom was Mr. Harris. He was, however, expelled from the 
General Assembly, and fined fifty pourids, which fine was remitted 
the next year. — Backus, vol. i. p. 457. We may hope, that Mr. 
Harris, though he doubtless had faults, was less culpable, than his 
contemporaries thought him. It was an unquiet time, and few public 
men escaped censure. 

t In the records of the town of Providence, is tlie following act: 
" June 2, 1657. Ordered, that Mr. Roger Williams be accommodat- 
ed with two acres and a half of land amongst the rest of the neigh- 
bors, at the further Bailey's Cove, he laying down land equivalent 
to it. in the judgment of the town deputies," 



300 M E !M O I R or 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Death of Cromwell — his character — R,icliard Cromv/ell succeeds — 
Restoration of Charles II. — Act of Uniformity, and ejection of the 
Non-conformists — Affairs in Rhode-Island — -Indian deed — letters 
to Mr. Winthrop. 

The Protector Cromwell died in September, 165S. This 
wonderful man raised himself, from a private station, to the 
supreme power, and fulfilled his high functions with an 
ability and energy, which few occupants of a throne have 
ever displayed. He has shared the usual fate of those men, 
whose conduct and principles have placed them apart from 
the mass of mankind. No other man was ever in a 
position, which exposed him to the hatred and misrepre- 
sentation of so many parties. The royalists heaped on 
him unmeasured obloquy as a usurper. The High Church 
party denounced him as a foe to the hierarchy. The Pres- 
byterians disliked and opposed him, as a friend of toleration. 
The ultra-repiblicans reproached him for his ambition, 
because L o did not thmk England, in her existing condi- 
tion, to be capable of a free republican government, and 
therefore retained in his hands the power which he believed 
to be indispensable to the peace of the state. The irreli- 
gious, of all parties, scoffed at him as a hypocrite and a 
fanatic, though the charge is somewhat inconsistent with 
itself.* 

That Cromwell had faults, may be freely acknowledged, 



* Pope (Essay on Man, Ep. iv. 1. 284,) has aided in confirming the 
prejudice against Cromwell, by his famous line : 

^' See Cromwell damned to everlasting fame." 
Pope sometimes sacrificed truth to a brilliant couplet. The two lines 
which immediately precede the one just quoted are a specimen : 
''If parts allure thee^ think how Bacon shined, 
"The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind." 
Public opinion now does not sustain the poet, in stigfmatizing the great 
Bacon as the " meanest of mankind," but views him as more sinned 
against than sinning. We may learn from these examples, how 
great is the responsil3leness of popular authors. By a single line they 
may perpetuate calumny. They may poison the wells of knowledge. 



R O G r. R WILLIAMS. 301 

by his warmest friends. That his course was always wise 
and jnstitiable, cannot be maintained ; but it may be doubt- 
ed, whether, if the circumstances of that stormy and criti- 
cal period in which he lived were fairly weighed, and his 
character and conduct were sifted, with a candid spirit, it 
would not be found, that Cromwell deserves more of the 
applause of the friends of liberty and religion, than of their 
censures. It is certain, that his accusers yield to him the 
praise of qualities, which it is difficult to reconcile with the 
crimes that they impute to him. 

It is surprising to hear, from American writers, reproaches 
against Cromwell as a " usurper."* This language is not 
strange from the lips of a royalist, or a High Church parti- 
san, in England ; but from an American, it is inconsistent, 
and unworthy of his position as a citizen of a great and 
free country, where public opinion ought to be decisively 
and steadily in favor of republican principles, and ought thus 
to form an august tribunal, whose verdict should be felt and 
respected throughout the earth. 

An American, surely, can feel no respect for hereditary 
titles. In his view, Cromwell would have had a clear right to 
the throne, if the people had chosen to give him the 
crown ; and there is quite as much evidence, that the 
great body of the people of England were satisfied with 
the government of Cromwell, as that they were content 
with that of Charles II. If by usurpation is meant a viola- 
tion of the Constitution, it may be replied, that the Consti- 
tution was already broken. The King had trampled on it, 
and the Long Parliament had governed the kingdom for 
years with an entire disregard of the Constitution. The 
country was in a state of anarchy, and it was a blessing to 
England that Cromwell seized the reins, and controlled 
the fierce parties who convulsed the nation. Napoleon, 
though his subsequent course was unjustifiable, did a 
good service to France, when he overthrew the detestable 

* Examples might be cited, of language like this, in American 
authors. They show the effect of a discreditable deference to foreign 
writers. But all American authors are not disposed to echo the in- 
fidel and toi'v opinions of England. Dr. Stiles, in his History of the 
Judges, defended Cromwell ; and a writer in the Christian Spectator, 
for September, 1829, has vindicated the character of the Protector, 
with ability and eloquence. 

26* 



302 MEMOIR or 

demagogues who had deluged her with blood. If our peer- 
less ¥/ashington had found this country, in 1784, in the 
condition in which England was in 1653, and France in 
1800, it would have been his duty, as a patriot and a phi- 
lanthropist, to employ the power at his control for the pre- 
servation of order, and the restoration of public happiness. 

It is certain, that the great ends of government, — peace 
and prosperity at home and respect abroad, — were enjoyed 
under Cromwell's sway, to a far higher degree than they 
were under most of the British monarchs, preceding the 
revolution. Even Hume, who was an infidel and a tory, 
and of course hated Cromwell, acknowledges, that the dis- 
tracted state of England, and the mutual rancor of its 
various factions, rendered an energetic government indis- 
pensable, and would hnve furnished a reasonable excuse 
for what he calls the " temporary usurpation" of Cromwell, 
if the Protector had teen guilty of no other crime.* The 
excellent Baxter, who carried his loyalty to the preposter- 
ous length of opposing Cromwell, under whom he enjoyed 
perfect toleration, and striving to restore the " legitimate" 
King, with the almost certain prospect of being persecuted 
and silenced, confesses, that religion flourished, under the 
Protector, in a degree before unknown. " I do not be- 
lieve," he says,t "that ever England had so able and faith- 
ful a ministry since it was a nation, as it hath at this day ; 
and I fear, that few nations on earth, if any, have the like. 
Sure I am, the chang-e is so areat, within these twelve 
years, that it is one of the greatest joys that ever I had in 
the world to behold it O how many congregations are 
now plainly and frequently taught, that lived then in great 
obscurity. How many able, faithful men are there now 
in a county, in comparison of what were then." And yet 
Baxter labored and prayed for the restoration of Charles, 
under whom Baxter himself and two thousand more of 
these faithful ministers vvere speedily silenced. 

Cromwell has been accused of hypocrisy, but this charge, 
especially when made by such men as Hume, is unworthy 
of credit. Baxter, who was a good judge of piety, does not 
accuse Cromwell of hypocrisy, but acknowledges that he 
was a pious man, though misled by ambition. " Both piety 

"^ History of England, chapter Ixi. 

t Works. Orme's edition, vol. i. p. 153. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 303 

anci ambition," he says, " concurred in countenancing all 
whom he thought godly, of what sect soever. Piety plead- 
ed for them as godly, and charity as men, and ambition 
secretly told him what use he might make of them. He 
meant well in all this at the beginning, and thought he did 
all for the safety of the godly, and the public good, but not 
without an eye to himself"* As to his ambition, he pro- 
bably had a sufficient share of it ; but he refused the crown 
when it was urged on him, with many plausible arguments, 
by Parliament, and when, as Hume intimates, a large part 
of the nation would have acquiesced. His personal and 
domestic habits are acknowledged, by all parties, to have 
been pure and amiable. His court was perhaps the most 
moral and decorous, that England has ever seen. 

The Protector was a friend of toleration, and this single 
trait in his character is sufficient to entitle his memory to 
respect. He was not entirely consistent, it is true, but no 
public man, at that day, except Roger Williams, was so. 
Cromwell was surrounded with difficulties ; and the " In- 
strument of Government," under which he held the Protec- 
torship, excluded Episcopalians and Catholics from the en- 
joyment of that religious liberty which it granted to all 
others.! But the spirit of the Protector was more tolerant 
than the laws, and he often connived at the meetings of the 
Episcopalians. A man, who, at that time, and in his post, 
could act, so far as he did, on the principle of an equitable 
toleration of all religious opinions, could not have been either 
a fanatic or a despot.t 



"■■ Works, vol. i. p. 149. f Neal, vol. iv. p. 101. 

t The Protector's exertions to relieve and protect the unhappy 
Waldenses. who were at that time suffering a merciless persecu- 
tion, claim for him the gratitude of every friend of religion and lib- 
erty. He appointed a day of national humiliation and prayer through- 
out all England and Wales, and ordered that a collection should be 
made in all the houses of worship, for the relief of the sufferers. He 
himself headed a subscription, with the liberal donation of two thous- 
and pounds, and in a short time the large sum of nearly forty thous- 
and pounds was raised and transmitted. Not contented with this 
measure, he sent letters to the Duke of Savoy, the inhuman perse- 
cutor, and to several of the princes of Europe, for the purpose of 
procuring deliverance for the miserable remnants of the Waldenses. 
The potent voice of the formidable Protector, which none of the 
monarchs of that day ventured to despise, uttered, as it was, by the 



304 MEMOIR OF 

Roger Williams was a friend of Cromwell. It has been 
supposed, that he was allied to him by birth. He was cer- 
tainly drawn to him by a communion of spirit, on the sub- 
of religious liberty. In his letters, he repeatedly alludes 
to familiar conversations with Cromwell. The friendship 
of Milton and Roger Williams may be viewed as an hon- 
orable testimony to the character of the Protector. It is 
difficult to believe, that these men would have yielded their 
confidence and esteem to a hypocrite, either in religion or 
in politics. It is not more easy to believe, that such a man 
as Cromwell has been described, would have admitted men 
so sagacious and upright as Milton and Williams, to a close 
scrutiny of his actions, or that by all the cunning which 
has been ascribed to him he could have deceived them. 

These three men, in fact, resembled each other, in their 
character, in their opinions, and in the treatment which 
they received. Each was misunderstood ; each has suf- 
fered obloquy, and each is receiving, from the calm and 
enlightened judgment of the present age, that just sentence, 
which, sooner or later, will reward him, who aims to ad- 
vance the happiness of men, and who perseveres, through 
evil and good report, in upholding the persecuted cause of 
truth and freedom.* 

Cromwell was quietly succeeded, as Protector, by his 
son Richard, a proof, that the nation were not very much 



powerful pen of Milton, the Latin Secretary, had some effect, though 
less than he hoped, to soften the rage of bigotry and persecution. 
The following sonnet was written by Milton on this occasion : 

" On the late Massoxre in Piedmont. 

Avenge, Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones 

Lie scatfer'd on the Alpine mountains, cold ; 

K'en them, who kept thy truth so pure of old, 
When all our fathers worship'd stocks and stones, 
Forget not; in thy book record their groans. 

Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient Add 

Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that roli'd 

Mother and infatit down the rocks. Their moans 
The vales redoubled to the hills, and they 

To Heaven. Their martyi'd blood and ashes sow 

O'er all th' Italian fields,\vhere still doth sway 
The triple tyrant ; that from these may grow 

A hundred fold, who, having learned thy way, 

Early may fly the Babylonian woe." 

* Judging from the rapid progress of free principles in England, 



ROGER W I L I- I A M S , 305 

^dissatisfied with Cromwell's sway. But Richard possessed 
neither the talents, nor the ambition of his father.* The 
aspiring and factious men whom Oliver held in check, soon 
forced his son to retire from his burthensome and difficult 
office. A stormy period succeeded, during which the 
rival parties struggled for victory. At length, General 
Monk, obtaining the command of a powerful army, restored 
the King, Charles II. who entered London in triumph. May 
29, 1660. The nation received him with apparent joy, 
being weary of the disorders which preceded and followed 
the energetic government of Cromwell. The royalists, 
among whom were the Episcopalians, welcomed the King 
with delight. The Presbyterians, who had disliked Crom- 
well, were also zealous in restoring Charles, with the ex- 
pectation that their system would be continued as the na- 
tional religion. They were so eager to merit the gratitude 
of the King, that they exacted of him no conditions, but 
were satisfied with the assurance,^ that he would grant 
liberty to all tender consciences ; a promise, which he after 

it would not be surprising if Cromwell should, ere long, be recognis- 
ed as one of the great leaders in the struggle for freedom. Mr. 
Ivirney, in his life of Milton, (p. 131,) says of "Cromwell," for whose 
statue I venture to bespeak a niche among the illustrious dead in 
Westminster Abbey; not doubting, from recent events, but the time^ 
will come, when the governors of the nation will be so sensible of 
the obligations of Britain to that illustrious ruler and his noble com- 
patriots, as maugre the mean power of ignorance and prejudice, will 
decree him a monumental inscription in the sepulchres of our kings." 

* The colony of Rhode-Island adopted an address to Richard 
Cromwell, of which the following is an extract. The address was 
never presented : 

•• May it please your Highness to know, that this poor colony of 
Providence Plantations, mostly consists of a birth and breeding of the 
Providence of the Most High, we being an outcast people, formerly 
from our mother nation, in the bishops' days, and since from the 
New-English over-zealous colonies ; our whole frame being like unto 
the present frame and constitution of our dearest mother England ; 
bearing with the several judgments and consciences each of other 
in all the towns of our colony, which our neighbor colonies do not, 
which is the only cause of their great offence against us. Sir, we 
dare rxot interrupt your high affairs with the particulars of our wilder- 
ness condition, only beg your eye of favor to be cast upon our faith- 
ful Agent, Mr. John Clarke, and unto what humble addresses he 
shall at any time present your Highness with in our behalf." — Back- 
Ms, yol. i. pp. 316-17, 



306 M F M O I R O F 

wards found it very easy to violate, by insisting, that 
all consciences which did not agree with his views, were 
not tender, but criminally obstinate. The efforts of the 
Presbyterians to obtain a compromise with the Episco- 
palians, by which they might be comprehended in the 
Established Church, failed.* The bishops would not 
consent to any alterations of the liturgy. The Presbyte- 
rians would not listen to the King's proposition of tolera- 
tion to other denominations, by which he meant to favor 
the Papists, but which the Presbyterians rejected, more 
from a dread of Popery, we may hope, than from their gen- 
eral aversion to toleration. The Act of Uniformity was 
passed, and took effect, August 24, 1662. Two thousand 
of the best ministers in England were ejected from their 
livings, because they could not submit to the rigorous re- 
quirements of the act. Dreadful distress to them and to 
their families was the natural consequence. The interests 
of religion suffered incalculable injury, by the loss of these 
ministers, and by the character of many of their successors. 

King Charles II. was proclaimed in Rhode-Island, Oc- 
tober 19, 1660. A new commission was sent to Mr. 
Clarke, and he continued his exertions to procure a new 
charter for the colony. Various sums of money were voted, 
at different times, to be sent to Mr. Clarke. t 

At Providence, there seems to have been a spirit among 
some of the inhabitants, which disturbed the peace of Mr. 
Williams. Whether they were envious of his influence, 
or impatient under the restraints which he steadily advo- 



^ An interesting account of the fruitless endeavors of the Presby- 
terians to effect this object, is given in Orme's Life of Baxter, chap- 
ter vii. 

t August 23, 1659, a rate of fifty pounds was voted for his use, of 
which Newport was to pay twenty, Providence eleven, Portsmouth 
ten, and Warwick nine. May 21 , 1661 , two hundred pounds sterling 
were voted, of which Newport was to pay eighty-five, Providence 
forty, Portsmouth forty, and Warwick thirty-five. Subsequent ap- 
propriations, to the amdunt of three hundred and six pounds, are 
found on the records. The relative size of the towns may be inferred 
from the above apportionment. Newport was more than twice as 
large as Providence. A record of the names of the freemen in the sev- 
eral towns, in 1655, states the numbers thus : Newport, eighty-three ^ 
Portsmouth, fifty-two ; Providence, foi-ly-tvv'o ; Warwick. tnirty-eighV 
— total, two hundred and fifteen 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 307 

Cated, with the whole weight of his authority, does not now 
appear. But it is certain, that parties were formed, which, 
for many years, greatly interrupted the tranquillity of the 
town ; and it was thought necessary, in 1669, to send a 
Committee of the General Assembly, to settle the difficulties. 
The boundaries of the town were a fruitful cause of con- 
tention, and involved the inhabitants in disputes, which 
were not adjusted till long after the death of Mr. Williams 
and of most of his contemporaries. He complains, in a letter, 
dated July, 1669, that they had '' four sorts of bounds at 
least." He says : " soma (that never did this town nor col- 
ony good, and it is feared never will) cried out, when Roger 
Williams had laid himself down as a stone in the dust for 
after comers to step on in town and colony. Who is Roger 
Williams ? We know the Indians and the sachems as 
well as he. We will trust Roger Williams no longer. We 
will have our bounds confirmed us under the sachems' 
hands before us."* 

In August, 1659, the following deed was procured from 
the Narraganset sachems : 

'' Deed of Scattape and Quoquagunewett, son of Mex- 
ham, son of Qunnouone, called by the English Canonicus, 
uncle to Miantinomo, who made a league of peace with 
the English in the Massachusetts, for all the Indians in 
these parts, in the time of the Pequod war with the Eng- 
lish, this our grandfather and cousin, these sachems, grant- 
ed to Roger Williams, agent for the men' of Providence and 
the men of Pawtuxet, a tract of land, reaching from Paw- 
tucket river to Pawtuxet river. All the lands between the 
streams of those rivers, and up these streams without lim- 
its, for their use of cattle, did they grant to the men afore- 
said, the men of Providence and the men of Pawtuxet : — 
to whom we establish the lands aforesaid, up the streams 
of those rivers, and confirm, without limit, or as far as the 
men abovesaid, of Providence and of Pawtuxet, shall judge 
convenient for their use of cattle, as feeding, ploughing, 
planting all manner of plantations whatsoever ; we say, all 
the lands, according to the limits abovesaid, we establish 
and confirm to the men of Providence and the men of 

*- R. I. Lit. Rep. for March, 1815, p. 638. 



308 MEMOIR or 

Pawtuxet. according to their joint agreement, in the most 
absolute tenure of fee simple, to them, their heirs and as- 
signs forever. And hereby bind ourselves, our heirs and 
assigns, not to molest or trouble the men abovesaid, in the 
full enjoyment of the land abovesaid. Nevertheless, it 
shall not be lavi'ful for the men abovesaid to remove the 
Indians that are up in the country, from their fields, with- 
out the Indians' content and consent ; nor shall it be law- 
ful for any of those Indians to sell any of the lands above- 
said to any, only it shall be lawful for them to take of the 
men of Providence and the men of Pawtuxet, according 
to their joint agreements, satisfaction for their removing. 
And, as we have established to the men abovesaid the land 
and deed granted by our grandfather and cousin, so do we 
now, also, confirm the grant of confirmation by our cousin, 
Cursackquanth, Caufanequanutte, and Kenerselath. 

" Dated this first day of December, 1659. 

" The mark of {a tomahawk) SCUTTAPE, 
'' The mark of {boiv and arro?v) aUOQUAGUNEWETT. 

** Signed and delivered, in presence of 

Nautemoreaw, — his mark, 

Richard Smith, 

Richard Smith, Jr. ' 

James Smith, 

William Dyre. 

*' Richard Smith, and Richard Smith, jun. swore, that 
this deed was explained before it was signed." April 28, 
1660, Acaquaomitt, son of Q,uoquagunewett, confirmed 
the preceding deed. 

This deed was, it appears, written by Mr. William Har- 
ris. This fact accounts for its phraseology. It was assert- 
ed by Mr. Williams and others, that the sachems did 
not understand its full import, when they signed it. 
It was procured on the ground, that Mr. Williams' 
deed from the sachems conveyed a life estate only to him, 
and consequently his deed to the purchasers could convey 
no other title. This deed, also, greatly extended the orig- 
inal bounds, and thus gratified those who had contended, 
that the phrase " up streams without limits," in the 
sachems' deed to Mr. Williams, gave a title to the lands 



R O fe Q %V I L 1 1 A M g. 309 

lying along the rivers Pawtuxet and Pawtucket, up to 
their sources. This construction was always resisted by 
Roger Williams, as false, and as injurious to the natives. 
The new deed was disappioved by himself and others.* 
It appears to have been procured in no friendly spirit to- 
wards himself It implied that he had acted improperly, 
in taking the deed in his own name, and it calls him the 
^* agent of the men of Providence and the men of Pawtux- 
et." But it has, we trust, been satisfactorily shown, in 
preceding pages, that Mr. Williams was rhe rightful pro^ 
prietor of the original grant, and was under no obligation 
to divide the land among his fellow-colonists. 

The following letters to Mr. Winthrop^ touch on seve- 
ral interesting topics : 

*'To my honored, kind friend, Mr. John Winthrop, Gov- 
ernor, at Hartford, on Connecticut. 

''Providence, 6, 12, 59-60. 

" Sir, 

" Loving respects to yourself and Mrs. Winthrop, &/C. 

Your loving lines in this cold, dead season, were as a cup 

of your Connecticut cider, which we are glad to hear 

abounds with you, or of that western metheglin, which you 

* A document exists, purporting to be an act of the town, with a 
preface, signed by Gregory Dexter, and entitled " An instrument, or 
sovereign plaster, to heal the manifold sores in this town or plantation 
of Providence, which do arise about lands." This document says : 
'* Lst. That act. to divide to the men of Pawtuxet twenty ufiles, 19 
Iiereby declared against as unjnstand unreasonable, not being health- 
ful, but hurtful. 1. Whereas great and manifold troubles have be- 
fallen both ourselves and the whole colony, by reason of that phrase, 
" up streams without limits, we might have for the use of our cattle," 
for preventing future contention, we declare that our bounds are lim- 
ited in our town evidences, and by us stated, about twenty years 
since, and known to be the river and fields of Pawtucket, Sugar 
Loaf Plill, Bewett's Brow. Observation Rock, Absolute Swamp, Ox- 
ford and Hipe's Rock. **^" No other privilege, by virtue of the said 
phrase, to be challenged by this town, viz. that if the cattle went 
beyond the bounds prefixed in the said deed granted to him, [Mr. 
Williams] then the owners of the cattle should be no trespassers, the 
cattle going so far in one day to feed as they might couje home at 
night. 3. And v/liereas some of us have desired of the colony leave 
to purchase for this town some enlargement, which was granted, and 
by the great diligence of our said neighbor, Williams, with the na- 
tives, more land isbouorht, adjoining your said bounds," v%c. 
^7 



310 MEMOIR OP 

and I have drunk at Bristol together, &c. Indeed, it is 
the wonderful power and goodness of God, that we are 
preserved in our dispersions among these wild, barbarous 
wretches. I hear not of their excursions this winter, and 
should rejoice if, as you hint, Uncas and his brother were 
removed to Long-Island, or any where, or else, as I have 
sometimes motioned, a truce for some good term of years 
might be obtained amongst them. But how should we ex- 
pect that the streams of blood should stop among the dregs 
of mankind, when the bloody issues flow so fresh and fear- 
fully among the finest and most refined sons of men and 
sons of God. We have not only heard of the four north- 
ern nations, Dania, Swedia, Anglia, and Belgium, all Pro- 
testants, (heretics and dogs, with the Pope, &c.) last year 
tearing and devourincr one another, in the narrow straits 
and eminent high passages and turns of the sea and 
world ; but we also have a sound of the Presbyterians' 
rage new^ burst out into flames of war from Scotland, and 
the independent and sectarian army provoked again to new 
appeals to God, and engagements against them. Thus, 
while this last Pope hath plied with sails and oars, and 
brought all his popish sons to peace, except Portugal, and 
brought in his grand engineers, the Jesuits, again to Ven- 
ice, after their long just banishment, we Protestants 
are wofully disposed to row backward, and bring our sails 
aback-stays, and provoke the holy, jealous Lord, who is a 
consuming fire, to kindle again those fires from Rome and 
hell, which formerly consumed (in Protestant countries) 
so many precious servants of God. The late renowned 
Oliver confessed to me, in close discourse about the Protes- 
tants' affairs, 6lc. that he yet feared great persecutions to 
the Protestants from the Romanists, before the downfall of 
the Papacy, The histories of our fathers before us, tell us 
what huge bowls of the blood of the saints that great whore 
hath been drunk with, in (now) Protestant dominions. 
Sure her judgment will ring through the world, and it is 
hoped it is not far from the door. Sir, you were, not long 
since, the son of two noble fathers, Mr. John Winthrop 
and Mr. H. Peters. It is said they are both extinguished. 
Surely, I did ever, from my soul, honor and love them 
even when their judgments le^ them to afflict me. Ye 
the Father of Spirits spares us breath, and I rejoice. Sir 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 311 

that your name (amongst the New-England magistrates 
printed, to the Parliament and army, by H. Nort. Rous, 
^c.) is not blurred, but rather honored, for your prudent 
and moderate hand in the late Quakers' trials amongst us. 
And it is said, that in the late Parliament, yourself were 
one of the three in nomination for General Governor over 
New-England, which however that design ripened not, yet 
your name keeps up a high esteem, &lc. I have seen your 
hand to a letter to this colony, as to your late purchase of 
some land at Narraganset.* The sight of your hand hath 
quieted some jealousies amongst us, that the Bay, by this 
purchase, designed some prejudice to the liberty of con- 
science amongst us. We are in consultations how to an- 
swer that letter, and my endeavor shall be, with God's help, 
to welcome, with both our hands and arms, your interest 
in these parts, though we have no hope to enjoy your per- 
sonal residence amongst us. I rejoice to hear that you 
gain, by new plantations, upon this wilderness. I fear that 
many precious souls will be glad to hide their heads, short- 
ly, in these parts. Your candle and mine draws towards 
its end. The Lord graciously help us to shine in light and 
love universally, to all that fear his name, without that mo- 
nopoly of the affection to such of our own persuasion only ; 
for the common enemy, the Romish wolf, is very high in 
resolution, and hope, and advantage to make a prey on all, 
of all sorts, that desire to fear God. Divers of our neigh- 
bors thankfully re-salute you We have buried, this win- 
ter, Mr. Olney's son, v/hom, formerly, you heard to be afflict- 
ed with a lethargy. He lay two or three days wholly sense- 
less, until his last groans. My youngest son, Joseph, was 
troubled with a spice of an epilepsy. We used some rem- 
edies, but it hath pleased God, by his taking of tobacco, 

* In 1659, Mr. John Wintlirop, Major Humphrey Atherton, and 
associates, purchased of the Narraganset sachems two tracts of land, 
joining to the Bay, one lying to the southward of Mr. Smith's trad- 
ing-house, and the other to the northward of it, and settled it with 
inhabitants. 1 His. Col. v. p. 217. 

In 1657, Mr. William Coddington and Mr. Benedict Arnold pur- 
chased, of the same sachems, the island Canonicut, which, in 1678, 
was incorporated as a township, by the name of Jamestown. Ibid. 

In the same year, Mr John Hull, Mr. John Porter, and three per- 
sons more, purchased a large tract of land, in the southern parts of 
the Narraganset country, and called Petaquamscut Purchase. Ibid. 



313 MEM Oil? Vl^ 

perfectly, as we hope, to cure him. Good Mr. Parker, of 
Boston, passing from Prudence Island, at his coming on 
shore, on Seekonk land, trod awry upon a stone or stick, 
and fell down, and broke the small bone of his leg. He 
hath lain by of it all this winter, and the last week was 
carried to Boston in a horse litter. Some fears there were 
of a gangrene. But, Sir, I use too much boldness and pro- 
lixity. I shall now only subscribe myself, 

" Your unworthy friend, 

*'R. W. 
" Sir, my loving respects to Mr. Stone, Mr. Lord, Mr. 
Allen, Mr. Webster, and other loving friends." 

" To my honored, kind friend, Mr. Winthrop, Gov- 
ernor of Connecticut, these presents. 

" Providence^ 8, 7, 60 {so called.) 
" Sir, 

" A sudden warning gives me but time of this abrupt 
salutation to your kind self and Mrs. Winthrop, wishing 
you peace. I promised to a neighbor, a former servant of 
your father's, (Joshua Windsor,) to write a line, on his be- 
half, and Lt his desire, unto you. His prayer to you is, 
that wLon you travel toward Boston, you would please to 
come by Provide;? ce, and spare one hour to heal an old 
sore, — u controv. ^y between him and most of his neigh- 
bors, in which, ^ nr apt to think, he hath suffered some 
wrong. Re hat. a romised to submit to your sentence. 
His oppoiite, one James Ashton, being desired by me to 
nominate ako, he resolves also to submit to your sentence, 
which will concern more will and stomach than damage ; 
for the matter only concerns a few poles of ground, wherein 
Joshua hath cried out of wrong these many years. I hope, 
Sir, the blesGsd Lord will make you a blessed instrument 
of chiding the winds and seas ; and I shall rejoice in your 
presence amongst us. There are greater ulcers in my 
thoughts at present, which, I fear, are incurable, and that 
it hath pleased the Most Wise and Most High to pass an 
irrevocable sentence of amputations and cauterizations 
upon the poor Protestant party. The clouds gather mighty 
fast and thick upon our heads from all the Popish quarters. 
It hath pleased the Lord to glad the Romish conclave with 
he departure of those two mighty bulwarks of the Protes- 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 313 

tants, Oliver and Gustavus ; to unite, (I think by this time) 
all the Catholic kings and princes, for Portugal was like, 
very like, of late, to return to the yoke of Spain, whose 
treasure from the Indies it hath pleased God to send home, 
so wonderfully great and rich this year, that I cannot but 
fear the Lord hath some mighty work to effect with it. 
We know the Catholic King was in debt, but he now over- 
flows with millions, which God is most like to expend 
against the Protestants or the Turks, the two great enemies, 
(the sword-fish and the thrasher) against the Popish levia- 
than. The Presbyterian party in England and Scotland is 
yet very likely to make some struggle against the Popish 
invasions; and yet in the end I fear (as long I have feared, 
and long since told Oliver, to which he much inclined,) 
the bloody whore is not yet drunk enough with the blood 
of the saints and witnesses of Jesus. One cordial is, 
(amongst so many the merciful Lord hath provided) that 
that whore will shortly appear so extremely loathsome, in 
her drunkenness, bestialities, &c. that her bewitched par- 
amours will tear her flesh, and burn her with fire unquench- 
able. Here is a sound that Fairfax, and about two hun- 
dred of the House with him, differ with the King. The 
merciful Lord fit us to hear and feel more. It is a very 
thick and dreadful mist and swamp, v/ith which the Lord 
hath a great while suffered us to labor in, as hoping to 
wade out, break through, and escape shipwreck. In 
Richard Protector's Parliament, they fell into three fac- 
tions presently : royalists, protectorians, (which were 
most Presbyterian, and earned it,) and commonwealth's 
men. The Presbyterians, when General Monk brought in 
the secluded members, carried it again, of late, clearly, 
and so vigorously against the Papists, that stricter laws 
than ever. There must surely, then, be great flames, be- 
fore the King can accomplish his engagements to the Popish 
party. 

" You know well. Sir, at sea, the first entertainment of a 
storm is with, down with top-sails. The Lord mercifully 
help us to lower, and make us truly more and more low, 
humble, contented, thankful for the least crumbs of mercy. 
But the storm increaseth, and trying with our mainsails and 
mizzens will not do. We must, therefore, humbly beg 
patience from the Father of Lights and God of all mercies, 
27* 



314 MEMOIR Off 

to lay at Hull, in hope. It was a motto in one of the late 
Parliaments : cornets, under a shower of blood * Trans- 
ibit.' 

*' Sir, my neighbor, Mrs. Scott, is come from England '; 
and, what the whip at Boston could not do, converse with 
friends in England, and their arguments, have, in a great 
measure drawn her from the Quakers, and wholly from 
their meetings. Try the spirits. There are many abroad, 
and must be, but the Lord will be glorious, in plucking up 
whatever his holy hand hath not planted. My brother runs 
strongly to Origen's notion of universal mercy at last, 
against an eternal sentence. Our times will call upon us 
for thorough discussions. The fire is like to try us. It is a 
wonderful mercy the barbarians are yet so quiet. A portion 
of our neighbors are just now come home, re infecta. The 
Mohegans would not sally, and the Narragansets would not 
spoil the corn, for fear of offending the English. The Lord 
mercifully guide the councils of the commissioners. Mr. 
Arnold, Mr. Brenton, and others, struggle against your in- 
terest at Narraganset ; but I hope your presence might do 
much good amongst us in a few days. 

'* Sir, I am, unworthy, yours. 



EOGER WILLIAMS. 315 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



Infant baptism — half-way covenant — laws to support religion — Char- 
ter from Charles II. — first meeting of Assembly — Mr. Clarke — 
difficulties about boundaries — charges against Rhode-Island, con- 
cerning Catholics and Quakers. 

It may be useful to look, for a moment, at the difficul- 
ties which arose, about this time, in the other colonies, re^ 
specting infant baptism. This rite had been hitherto ad- 
ministered to those children, whose immediate parents were 
both members of a church. Bat as the country increased, 
many persons, who were not msmbers of a church, had 
ahildren, for whom, neverthelecs, they desired baptism. 
The question accordingly arose, whether the children of 
such parents could properly be admitted to baptism. It 
was, on the one hand, a departure from the principle, that 
as faith is required in the Scriptures as a prerequisite to 
baptism, and as the infant could not exercise faith, it must 
consequently be baptized on the ground of its parents' 
faith. It seemed hard, on the other hand, that if there vv-as 
any virtue in infant baptism, the innocent child should be 
deprived of it, because its parents were not pious. The 
question began to be publicly agitated. The magistrates 
of Connecticut, about the year 1656, sent several queries 
on the subject to the magistrates of Massachusetts.* A 
meeting of ministers was held in Boston, June 4, 1657, at 
which the *' half-way covenant," as it was called, was 
adopted. "It provided, that all persons of sober life and 
correct sentiments, without being examined as to a change 
of heart, might profess religion, or become members of the 
church, and have their children baptized, though they did 
not come to the Lord's table. "t This disastrous departure 
from the Scriptures, and from the former practice of the 
<ihurches, was not unanimously adopted. Many ministers 
and churches were opposed to it. A synod was held, in 

" Hubbard, chap. Ixiv. 

t Havt^es' Tribute to the Memory of the PilgrimSj p. 149. 



316 MEMOIR OF 

Boston, in September, 1662, including all the ministers in 
Massachusetts. This body ratified the decision of the 
council of 1657. But parties were immediately formed, 
for and against the synod. The Rev. Charles Chauncey, 
President of Harvard College, and the Rev. Increase Ma- 
ther, wrote against the decision, while others wrote on the 
opposite side. The country was thrown into a ferment. 
A division took place in the First Church in Boston, and 
the Old South Church was formed in May, 1669, by a mi- 
nority of the First Church, the majority of whose members 
opposed the decision of the synod, while the seceding 
minority approved it. The General Court took up the 
subject, and at its session, in May, 1670, pronounced the 
formation of the new church to be irreligious, illegal and 
disorderly. But public opinion set in favor of the half- 
way covenant. At the next election, the members who 
had opposed the new church were left out, and others, of 
different opinions, elected. The Court then passed a vote 
in favor of the new church, and the cause of innovation 
and corruption of the purity of the churches triumphed.* 
This result generally ensues, when questions pertaining to 
religion are decided at the polls. 

The half-way covenant was, at first, opposed by many 
churches, but it afterwards extensively prevailed, and 
" wherever," says Dr. Havv^es, " it did prevail, the conse- 
quences were eminently unhappy. Great numbers came 
forward to own the covenant, as it was called, and had their 
children baptized ; but very few joined the church, in full 
communion, or partook of the sacrament. Satisfied with 
being half-way in the church, and enjoying a part of its 
privileges, they settled dovv^n in a state of dull and heart- 
less formality, and felt little or no concern respecting their 
present condition, or future prospects." t 

But all men were not content to be half-way in the 
church. About the year 1700, Mr. Stoddard, a distin- 
guished minister of Northampton, came to the conclusion, 
that the Lord's Supper is a converting ordinance, and that 
all persons ought to come to this ordinance. Thus all the 
barriers which separate the church from the world were 



* Dr. Wisner's Historical Discourses, p. 10. 

t Hawes' Tribute to the Memory of the Pilgrims, p. 150. 



IK5GER WILLI A Mj^. 31? 

thrown do\n\, and the consequences were deplorable. 
Multitudes of unconverted persons rushed into the churches, 
anxious for the privileges of church members, for political 
purposes. The church at Northampton is a signal in- 
stance of the eifects of the system. The great President 
Edwards, after he had been pastor for several years, en- 
deavored to introduce the old practice of discipline, and to 
require piety as a qualification for membership. But the 
worldly feeling in his parish was too strong, and notwith- 
standing his colossal reputation, and his faithful and suc- 
cessful labors, he was expelled from his pastoral othce, in 
a most ungrateful and unkind manner. 

We may mention, here, another cause of injury to the 
purity and permanent prosperity of the churches. The 
support of the ministry, by taxes, levied on all the inhab- 
itants, operated oppressively on the members of other de- 
nominations, created much distress to individuals, and pro- 
duced a wide-spread dissatisfaction in the community. As 
the right of a voice in the election of a minister was justly 
claimed by those who were obliged to pay taxes for his 
support, the character of the minister depended, of course, 
on that of a majority of the voters in a parish. The con- 
sequence has been, that in many instances, when the ma- 
jority have become opposed to the doctrines of the existing 
church, the minister has been expelled, another of opposite 
sentiments has been chos^r, the meeting-house has been 
seized, and funds, contributed by pious men of former 
generations, for the suppoi: of the ministry, have been ap- 
plied to the maintenance o^ men to whom those contrib- 
utors would have refused to listen. This is the natural 
effect of the system, and thos3 who uphold it have no right 
to complain. The American principle, that representation 
accompanies taxation, is just. If men are taxed by law to 
support a minister, they have a right to a voice in his 
election, and they will, of course, choose a minister whose 
principles accord, as nearly as possible, with their own. 
Reflecting and pious men, generally, are now, it is be- 
lieved, thoroughly convinced, that the principles of Roger 
Williams furnish the only secure basis for the peace and 
prosperity of a church. It is hoped that the laws of Mas- 
sachusetts will, ere long, be conformed to these principles, 



318 MEMOIR OF 

and religion be committed to the protection of God and of 
the liberal and pure-hearted disciples of the Redeemer.* 

This subject has detained us from our main theme, 
though it is appropriate to a work which we design to be 
an exposition of the nature and effects both of the princi- 
ples of religious liberty and of the opposite doctrines. 

Mr. Clarke continued his faithful labors in England, and 
on the 8th of July, 1663, he obtained from Charles II. a 
charter, which continues, till the present day, to be the 
fundamental law of the State. t It commits thq govern- 
ment of the colony to a Governor, Deputy Governor, and 
ten Assistants, to be elected annually, and a House of 
Deputies, consisting of six from Newport, four from each 
of the towns of Providence, Portsmouth and Warwick, and 
two from each of the other towns. It defines the bounda- 
ries of the colony, about which disputes existed for many 
years. It contains this most important provision, in 
which the principles on which the colony was founded 
are embodied : "No person within the said colony, at 
any time hereafter, shall be any wise molested, punished, 
disquieted, or called in question, for any differences in 
opinion, in matters of religion, who do not actually disturb 
the civil peace of our said colony ; but that all and every 
person and persons may, from tiiP.e to time, and at all 

^ A resolution to rJter the tliird article of the Constitution of 
Massachusetts, as a preparatoiy step towards the repeal of the laws 
for the support of religion by taxation, has been adopted by the 
people, since the text was written. It will, undoubtedly, be follow- 
ed by a repeal of the laws. 

t It is an honorable proof of steadiness of character in the people 
of Rhode-Island, that they have continued to prosper under this 
charter for one hundred and seventy years. No interruption of the 
government has occurred during this long period, and no attempt 
has been made to resist it. No community ever enjoyed more per- 
fect freedom, and yet none was ever more quiet and obedient to the 
laws. It is a gratifying evidence, that a truly free government is 
more stable than any other. The growth of the State has made some 
provisions of the charter operate unjustly. Providence, for exam- 
ple, with sixteen thousand inhabitants, sends only four representa- 
tives to the General Assembly, while Portsmouth, with seventeen 
hundred inhabitants, sends four, and Newport, with eight thousand, 
sends six. An attempt was made, a few years since, to obtain a new 
Constitution, but it did not succeed. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 319 

times hereafter, freely and fully have and enjoy his own 
and their judgments and consciences, in matters of reli- 
gious concernments, throughout the tract of land hereafter 
mentioned, they behaving themselves peaceably and quietly, 
and not using this liberty to licentiousness and profane- 
ness, nor to the civil injury or outward disturbance of 
others." * 

This noble declaration is in accordance with the ad- 
dress of the petitioners to his Llajesty, in which they 
"freely declared, that it is much on their hearts (if they 
be permitted) to hold forth a lively experiment, that a most 
flourishing civil state may stand, and best be maintained, and 
that among our English subjects, with a full liberty in re- 
ligious concernments ; and that true piety, rightly ground- 
ed upon Gospel principles, will give the best and greatest 
security to sovereignty, and will lay in the hearts'of men 
the strongest obligations to true loyalty." 

This charter was received with great joy. It was 
brought from Boston, by Capt. George Baxter, and was read 
publicly at Newport, November 24, 1663. The records 
say, that " the said letters, with his Majesty's royal stamp, 
and the broad seal, with much beseeming gravity, were 
held up on high, and presented to the perfect view of the 
people." 

Thanks were voted to the King, to the Earl of Claren- 
don, and to Mr. Clarke, together with a resolution to pay 
all his expenses, and to present him with a hundred pounds. 
Thanks were also voted to Capt. Baxter, with a present of 
thirty pounds, besides his expenses from Boston. t 

The first Assembly under the new charter was held 
March 1, 1663-4. Mr. Benedict Arnold was created by 
the charter the first Governor, and among the Assistants 
was Mr. Williams. 

The Assembly now assumed a peremptory tone towards 
the disturbers of the public peace at Pawtuxet and War- 
wick, and towards intruders at Narrao-anset. 



* See the charter, Appendix, G. 

t It is worthy of notice, that on May 9, 1663, the town of Provi- 
dence voted, that " one hundred acres of upland and six acres of 
meadow shall be reserved for the maintenance of a school in this 
town." 



*J20 51 E M O 1 A O ^ 

Mr. Williams was appointed to transcribe the charter.* 

At the session, in Mrj, 1684, Mr. Williams was again 
an Assistant. At this seosion, the seal of the colony was 
fixed, an anchor, with the word Hope over it, and the 
words Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations. 

Mr. Williams was this year appointed one of a com- 
mittee to review the laws, and one of aiaother committee to 
fix the eastern line of ihe state. 

At this session, a committee was appointed to audit Mr. 
Clarke's accomits. The smn of .£343 I5s. 6(1., was found» 
to be due to him. Mr. Clarke returned from England, iii 
June, 1664, after an absence, in the service of the colony, 
of twelve years. He M^as afterwards elected Deputy Gov- 
ernor three years successively. He was an able and good 
man, whom the State of Rhode-Island "ought to remember 
with respect and gratitude, as one of her chief benefactors. 
He died April 20, 1676. The money due to him from, the 
colony was never paid, during his life, though the Assem-' 
bly frequently urged the towns to pay it, and Mr. Williams 
used his influence to accomplish this act of public justice. t 
Mr. Clarke, in his will, left a considerable estate, to be- ap- 
propriated to " the relief of the poor, or bringing up children 
imto learning." 

An account of the difficulties with Massachusetts, Con- 
necticut and Plymouth, respecting boundaries, belongs 
rather to a history of Rhode-Island, than to this work. 
They continued for several years. Commissioners were ap- 
pointed by the King, in 1664, to settle the disputes respecting 
the Narraganset country, which was claimed by Connecti- 
cut, and by individuals, who had purchased lands there. 
Rut the matter was not settled for many years. The bounda- 
ries fixed by the chai'ter were at length ascertained and 
acknovv'ledgcd.t 

* At this session, Captain .Tohn Cranston was licensed to practise 
physic, with the title of'* Doctor of Ph3'^sic and Chirurgery." 

1 Mr. Williams felt a great esteem for Mr. Clarke. In the library 
r,f Brown University, is a copy of "The Bloody Tenet yet more 
Bloody/' bequeathed to the library by the Rev. Isaac Backus. On 
a blank leaf are these words, in JMr. Williams' hand writing : '• For 
his honored and beloved Mr. John Clarke, nn eminent witness cf 
Christ Jesus, against the Bloody Doctrine of Persecution, &c." 

i. For documents on the subject of boundaries, see 1 His. Col. t. 
pp 216—252. See also, 2 His. Col. vii. pp. 7.3— US, Rhode-Islaaid 
t^tatc Papers, furnished by the Hon. Samuel Eddy. 



Two (opics deserve notice here, because they affect the 
character of Roger Williams, and of Rhode-Tsland. We 
allude to the charges, that in 166^-4, Roman Catholics 
were excluded from the rights of citizens, and that in J 665, 
oppressive laws were enacted against the Quakers. 

The first of these charges is inade by Chalmers,* whcce 
situation, as chief clerk in the Plantation Office, in Eng- 
land, gave him access to original documents. He asserts, 
that at the meeting of the General Assembly, March ], 
1663-4, it was enacted, ''that no freeman shall be impris- 
oned, or deprived of his freehold, or condemned, but by 
the judgment of his peers, or the law of tlie colony ; that 
no tax shall be imposed or required of the colonists, but by 
the act of the General Assembly ; that all men [professing 
Christianity] of Competent estates, and of civil conversation, 
who acknowledge and are obedient to the civil magistrates, 
though of diffeyent judgments in religious aifairs, [Roman 
Catholics only excepted] shall be admitted freemen, or 
may choose, or be chosen, colonial officers,"! 

Such an act would, indeed, have been an anomaly in the 
legislation of Rhode-Island, and it has been alleged as an 
evidence of inconsistency in Roger Williams and the col- 
ony. The subject has, therefore, been examined with great 
care. The Hon. Samuel Eddy, for many years the Secre- 
tary of State in Rhode-Island, declares : j " I have formerly 
examined the records of the >State, from its first settlement, 
with a view to historical information, and lately from 166:5 
to 1719, with a particular view to this law excluding Roman 
Catholics from the privileges of freemen, and can find noth- 
ing that has any reference to it, nor any thing that gives 
any preference or privileges to men of one set of religious 
opinions over those of another, untd the revision of 1745." 
This testimony might, alone, be sufficient to disprove 
the allegation, though it is possible, that such an act might 
be passed, and not be recorded. But it is not probable, 
and when the uniform policy of the colony from tlie begin- 
ning, and other circumstances, are considered, it becomes 

* Political Aunals, b. i. o. xi. pp. 276, 27i>. 
f Holmes' Am. Annals, vol. i. p. 33C. 

+ Walsh's '-Appeal from the .ludgments of Great Britain." pp. 
427—435. 



322 MEMOIR OP 

morally certain, that no such act ever received the sanction 
of the Legislature of Rhode-Island. 

That entire liberty was professed and maintained) 
from the commencement of the colony, is certain. It was 
one of the fundamental regulations in the respective towns, 
and when they were united, under the first charter, it was 
expressly enacted, that, while the civil laws should be 
obeyed, " all men may walk as their consciences persuade 
them, every one in the name of his God."* 

The second charter declared, that " no person within the 
said colony, at any time hereafter, shall be anywise molest- 
ed, punished or disquieted, or called in question, for any 
differences in opinion, in matters of religion, and do not 
actually disturb the civil peace of our said colony." 

It is utterly incredible, that the Assembly, while they 
were passing votes of thanks to the King for the charter, 
would enact a law in violation of his positive declaration in 
the instrument itself, and at variance with their previous 
policy and with all their institutions. An exclusion of 
Catholics, moreover, would not only have violated the 
charter, and thus offended the King, but the legislators of 
Rhode-Island had sufficient knowledge of Charles, to be 
aware, that nothing would be less acceptable to him than 
a law against the Catholics, for whom he endeavored to 
obtain toleration in England. 

It may be added, that there were no Catholics in Rhode- 
Island, so late as 1695, according to Cotton Mather.t Mr. 
Eddy well remarks : " Why a law should be made to ex- 
clude from the privileges of freemen, those who were not 
inhabitants, by those who believed all to be equally entitled 
to their religious opinions, is difficult to conceive." 

At the next session, in May, 1664, the Assembly enact- 
ed, that, " at present this General Assembly judgeth it their 

* Tliis was the Rhode-Island doctrine and practice from the begin- 
ning. It was deeply rooted in all hearts. Among the deputies to 
tlie General Assembly, in 1675, the name, " Toleration Harris," 
occurs. 

t He says, in this year, that Rhode-Island colony " has been a 
colluvies of Antinomians, Familists, Anabaptists, Antisabbatarians, 
Arminians, Socinians, Quakers, Ranters, every thing in the Avorld 
but Roman Catholics and true Christians — though of the latter, 1 
hope, there have been more than of the former among them." — Mag- 
nalia. b. vii. c. iii. s. 12. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 323 

duty to signify his Majesty's gracious pleasure vouchsafed 
in these words to us, verbatim, (viz.)" — quoting the decla- 
ration from the charter which is cited above. 

At the session in May, 1665, in answer to certain pro- 
positions of the King's Commissioners, in which the King 
requires, that all the citizens shall enjoy equal civil and 
religious rights, without regard to their opinions, the As- 
sembly say : *' This Assembly do, with all gladness of 
heart, and humbleness of mind, aclnowledge the great 
goodness of God and favor of his Majesty in that respect, 
declaring, that as it hath been a principle set forth and 
maintained in this colony, from the very beginning tliereof^ 
so it is much on their hearts to preserve the same liberty 
to all persons within this colony forever, as to the worship 
of God therein, taking care for the preservation of the civil 
government, to the doing of justice and preserving each 
other's privileges from wrong and violence to others." 

Mr. Eddy accounts for the existence of the spurious 
words in the copy of the laws from which Mr. Chalmers 
quoted, by supposing, that they were inserted, without au- 
thority, at some period subsequent to 1719, by a revising 
committee, who might be desirous to please the government 
in England. Mr, Eddy says, in conclusion : " Thus you 
have positive and indubitable evidence, that the law exclud- 
ing Roman Catholics from the privileges of freemen was 
not passed in 1663-4, but that they were by law, at this 
time, and long after, entitled to all the privileges of other 
citizens ; and satisfactory evidence that these privileges 
were continued by law until 1719, when, or in one of the 
subsequent revisions, the words professing Christianity , 
and Roman Catholics only excepted, w^ere inserted by the 
revising committee." 

If, however, such an act had been passed, it would not 
necessarily impeach the character of Mr. Williams. He 
was an Assistant, only, in the Legislature of 1663-4, and 
could not be responsible for its acts. His own principles 
are on record. He contended for liberty of conscience 
to all men without any restriction. In his '' Hireling 
Ministry none of Christ's," printed in 1652 — only eleven 
years before— he says: ''All these consciences, (yea, the 
very conscience of Papists, Jews, &c. as I have proved at 
large in my answer to Mr. Cotton's washings) ought freelj" 



B^^i U E M O i R O F 

and impartially to be permitted their several respective 
worshipy, their ministers of worships, and what way of 
maintaining tliem they please." 

We proceed, now, to the other charge. It is contained 
in an article, in 1 His. Col. v. pp. 216-220, signed Francis 
Brinlev, whose statement is repeated in Holmes' American 
Annals, vol. i. p. 341. Mr. Brinley says: *' 1605. The 
government and council of Rhode-Island, &.c. passed an order 
for outlawing the people called duakers, because they 
would not bear arms, and to seize their estates ; but the 
people in general rose up against these severe orders, and 
would not suifer it." 

We are again indebted to Mr. Eddy for the means of 
correcting a mistake. He says (2 His. Col. vii. p. 97,) that 
the account of Mr. Brinley " is incorrect and partial." 
There was a difficulty, in which the Quakers, it seems, 
felt themselves aggrieved, but it was not the result of any 
acts aimed directly at them. The origin of it, as Mr. Eddy 
thinks, was this : The commissioners of the King required, 
in his name, " that all householders, inhabiting this colony, 
take the oath of allegiance." The Assembly, in reply, 
stated, that it had been the uniform practice of the colony, 
in pursuance of their great principles of religious liberty, 
to allow those who objected to take an oath, to make an en- 
gagement, under the penalty for false swearing. An en- 
gagement was accordingly drawn up, in which the individ- 
ual promised to bear true allegiance to the King and his 
successors, and to yield " due obedience unto the laws 
established from time to time." The Quakers, it appears, 
objected to this part of the engagement, because it bound 
them to pay obedience to the militia laws. The Assembly 
had enacted, that those who did not take the engagement, 
should not be permitted to " vote for public officers or dep- 
uties, or enjoy any privilege of freemen." Those persons, 
consequently, who refused to take the engagement, were 
disfranchised ; and to this effect, Mr. Brinley probably al- 
ludes, when he says that the Quakers were outlawed. If 
so, his statement is very loose and injurious, for it im- 
plies, that the act was expressly directed against them. 
But there was no design, apparently, on the part of the 
Assembly to affect them. The King commanded the Gen- 
eral Assembly to require au oath of allegiance. They dis- 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 325 

pensed with the oath, but required an engagement, pro- 
mising, in general terms, obedience to the laws. It would 
seem, that all the citizens might have safely taken the en- 
gagement, reserving their opposition to particular laws, to 
which they might be conscientiously opposed. An engage- 
ment to obey the laws would, of course, mean such laws 
only as were consistent with the laws of God and with the 
rights of conscience. The Assembly cannot, at any rate, 
be justly charged with an assault on the Quakers. The 
engagement was mitigated, the very next year, to suit their 
views, and every disposition was manifested to consult their 
feelings and respect their rights. One of their number 
was, the next year, elected Deputy Governor. 



28* 



326 IVI E IM O I B OF 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Mr. Williams' public services — religious habits — efforts as a minis- 
ter — Indians — private affairs — letter to J6hn Whipple, 

We are now approaching the close of Mr. Williams' life. 
Years were increasing upon him, and abating the vigor of 
his body and the ardor of his mind. Yet we find his name 
in the records both of the town and colony, so frequently, 
as to prove, that he retained his zeal for the public wel- 
fare, and that he enjoyed, to the end of his life, a large 
measure of public confidence. In the town meetings, he 
was often appointed moderator. He was appointed as a 
member of numerous committees, and was usually select- 
ed, when a skilful pen was needed for the public service. 

After serving the colony for two years, as President, and 
repeatedly as Assistant, or Comwissioner, under the first 
charter, he occupied a seat in the General Assembly, under 
the new charter, as an Assistant, in the years 1664, 1670, 
and 1671. He was chosen, in 1677, but he refused to 
serve, on account, probably, of his age. He was a Deputy 
from Providence, in May, 1667. 

Of his religious habits we have little knowledge. We 
have satisfactory reasons, however, for believing, that he 
preserved the character of an upright Christian. His 
books and letters are distinguished by the language of 
piety, and his general conduct exhibited its influence. 
Even Cotton Mather confesses, that '' in many things he 
acquitted himself so laudably, that many judicious persons 
judged him to liave had the root of the matter in him, dur- 
ing the long winter of this retirement."* He had, it is true, 
no connection with any church ; a circumstance, which 
we must regret, because it injured his reputation and his 
usefulness, wliile it diminished his personal enjoyment and 
spiritual growth. But we know that his reason for this 
course was, an erroneous idea, that the true church was, for 

* Magnalia, b. vii. c. ii. §8. 



ROGER WILLIAMS, 327 

a time, lost. He did not undervalue the benefits of church 
fellowship, but ardently longed for the restoration of the 
church. In his reply to George Fox, written about 1G72, 
he says, (p. 06,) " After all my search, and examina- 
tions, and considerations, I said, I do profeE3 to believe, 
that some come nearer to the first primitive c-luirches, and 
the institutions and appointments of Christ, than others ; 
as ill many respects, so in that gallant, and heavenly, and 
fundamental principle, of the true matter of a Christian 
congregation, flock or society, viz. actual believers, true 
disciples and converts, living stones, such as can give 
some account how the grace of God hath appeared unto 
them, and wrought that change in them. I professed, that 
if my soul could find rest, in joining unto any of the 
churches professing Christ Jesus now extant, I would 
readily and gladly do it, yea unto themselves, whom I now 
opposed."* 

As a minister of the Gospel, we have evidence that he 
did not wholly discontinue his labors ; though he must, 
according to his principles, have confined himself to 
" prophecy," or a declaration of truth and witness against 
error. Mr. Callender says, (p. 57,) " Mr. Williams used 
to uphold a public worship, sometimes, though not weekly, 
as many now alive [1738] remember, and he used to go 
once a month, for many years, to Mr. Smith's, in the Nar- 
raganset, for the same end." If persons alive in 1738, 
were present at Mr. Williams' meetings, as Mr. Callender's 
expression seems to imply, those meetings must have been 
held towards the close of his life. His visits to Narragan- 
set were designed, it has been supposed, for the benefit of 
the Indians ; but this is doubtful. There is reason to be- 
lieve, that his object was to instruct the whites, who either 



^ In thus living disconnected with any church, he followed tlie 
example of Milton and Cromwell. Of Milton, Toland saj's ; " In 
his early days, he was a favorer of those Protestants, then opprobri- 
ously called by the name of Puritans. In his middle years, he was 
best pleased with the Independents and Anabaptists, as allowing of 
more liberty than others, and coming nearest, in his opinion, to the 
primitive practice ; but in the latter part of his life, he was not a 
professed member of any particular sect among Christians ; he fre- 
quented none of their assemblies, nor made use of their peculiar rites 
in his family." Ivirney's Life of Milton, p. 251. 



328 MEMOIR OP 

lived in that neighborhood, far from any Christian 
teacher, or who were occasionally at Mr. Smith's trading- 
house.* 

He did, however, endeavor to instruct the Indians. 
^' He made," says Mr. Callender, (p. 84) "some laudable 
attempts to instruct them, yet he was much discouraged, 
not only by want of a lawful warrant, or an immediate 
commission to be an apostle to them, but especially by (as 
he thought) the insuperable difficulty of preaching Chris- 
tianity to them in their own language, v/ith any propriety, 
without inspiration." On this subject, he speaks, in his 
" Bloody Tenet more Bloody." He says, that he and oth- 
ers have found "how hard it is for any man to attain a little 
propriety of their language in common things, (so as to 
escape derision among them) in many years, without 
abundant of conversing with them, in eating, travelling and 
lodging with them." He refers, for proof, to the case of 
Mr. Eliot, who, notwithstanding his intimacy with the 
Indians, could not always make himself understood. f Mr. 
Williams seemed to think, that when the ministry should 
be restored, the gift of tongues would be bestowed on mis- 
sionaries, to qualify them for their work. 



* In a letter, dated May 8, 1682, he requests Governor Bradstreet, 
of Boston, to assist him in printing- some ''discourses, which (by 
many tedious journies) I have had with the scattered English atNar- 
rao-ansct, before the war, [Phihp's war, of 1C75-6] and since." 2 
His. Col.viii. p. 197. 

t Mr. Wilhams says, that Mr. Eliot promised a suit of clothes to 
an old Indian, who, not understanding him, asked another Indian, 
what Mr. Eliot said. This reminds vis of the well known anecdote 
respecting his translation of the Bible : — '' While Eliot was engaged 
in translating the Bible into the Indian language, he came to the fol- 
lowing passage in Judges, 5 : 28 : " The mother of Sisera looked out 
at the window, and cried through the lattice,''^ &c. Not knowing an 
Indian word to signify lattice, he applied to several of the natives, 
and endeavored to describe to them what a lattice resembled. He 
described it as frame work, netting, wicker, or whatever occurred to 
him as illustrative, when they gave him a long, barbarous and un- 
pronouncable word, as are most of the words in their language. 
Some years after, when he had learned their dialect more correctly, 
he is said to have laughed outright, upon finding that the Indians had 
given him the true term for eel-pot. " The mother of Sisera looked 
out at the window, and cried through the eel-pot.'" Bigelow's History 
of Natick, p. 84. This anecdote illustrates the difficulties of translat- 
ing-, and laay suggest a useful caution to translators. 



ROGER WILLIAM H. 3^9 

The Narraganset Indians were strongly opposed to the 
Gospel. It is said, that they allowed Mr. Williams to 
preach to them, but would permit no one else. They 
loved him, but they rejected his doctrines. His Key and 
his letters prove, nevertheless, that his benevolent efforts 
were not entirely in vain, and authorize the hope, that at 
the last day, he may share, with Eliot, Mayhew and Brai- 
nerd, the blessing of ransomed souls from among the un- 
happy native tribes. 

Of Mr. Williams' private affairs, we know little. No- 
tices respecting lands occasionally appear on the records 
of the town.* 

His public spirit, and disposition to serve his fellow- 
citizens, appear on various occasions. In 1666, a vote of 
the town was passed, '* remitting to him an engagement 
made by him to the town, for clapboards and nails lor the 
building of a town house." The inference is, that the 
project which he, perhaps, devised, and offered to promote, 
failed. 

The following letter to the town, relates to a biidre. On 
the first Monday of June, 1662, the town had or :3red a 
bridge to be built over Moshassuck river, " by J'liomas 
Olney his house," to be done before the next hay- 
time. It would seem, that this order was no' accom- 



* " February 19, 1665. Ordered, That Rog'er Williams shall have 
his first choice, after William Hawkins and John Steero, of the fifty 
acres of land on the east side of the north line, wLlcu beginneth 
seven miles from Fox's Hill, west." 

" June 4, 166C. It is granted vmto Ptoger William?, ihat he may 
cliange three acres of land lying in the neck, and take it up some- 
where about the third lake, if it may, with convenlency, without 
damage to the highways, or other men's lands, which are already laid 
out." 

September 30, 1667, he was allowed to change thieo acres of land, 
which was laid out to him, in addition to his house lot, and take it 
up in any part of the common which is not prohibited. 

May 2, 1607, there were laid out to him " fifty acres between the 
seven mile and the four line." This four mile line seems to have 
been the original line, about four miles west from Fox's Rill. Ad- 
ditional land being purchased of the Indians, the seven mile line 
was established, June 4, 1660, beginning seven miles west of Fox's 
Hill, and running north to Pawtucket river, and south to Fawtuxet 
river. 



1330 MEMOIR OF 

plished, and that the following letter refers to the same 
project : 

a Providence^ 10 Feb. 1667-8. 
'' Loving friends and neighbors, 

" Unto this day, it pleased the town to adjourn for the 
cinswering of the bill for the bridge and others. I have 
conferred with Shadrach Manton and Nathaniel Water- 
man, about their proposal, and their result is, that they 
cannot obtain such a number as will join with them, to 
undertake the bridge upon the hopes of meadow. I am, 
therefore, bold, after so many anchors come home, and so 
much trouble and long debates and deliberations, to offer, 
that if you please, I will, with God's help, take this bridge 
unto my care, by that moderate toll of strangers of all sorts, 
which hath been mentioned ; will maintain it so long as it 
pleaseth God that I live in this town. 

" 2. The town shall be free from all toll, only I desire 
one day's work of one man in a year from every family, but 
from those that have teams, and have much use of the 
bridge, one day's work of a man and team, and of those 
that have less use, half a day. 

" 3. I shall join with any of the town, more or few, 
ivho will venture their labor with me for the gaining of 
meadow. 

" 4. I promise, if it please God, that I gain meadow in 
equal value to the town's yearly help, I shall then release 
that. 

" 5. I desire, if it please God to be with me, to go 
through such a charge and trouble as will be to bring this 
to a settled way, and then suddenly to take me from hence, 
I desire that before another, my wife and children, if they 
desire it, may engage in my stead to these conditions. 

"6. If the town please to consent, I desire that one of 
yourselves be nominated, to join with the clerk to draw up 
the writing. R. W." 

It does not appear, whether the bridge was built, at this 
time, or not. In February, 1711-12, Mr. Daniel Abbot 
was sent as an agent to Massachusetts and Connecticut, to 
solicit aid in building " three great bridges, upon the road 
leading from Connecticut toward Boston, viz. one at Paw- 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 831 

tuxet Falls, one at Weybossct in Providence,* and the 
other over Pawtucket river." 

Mr. Williams omitted no opportunity of serving the In- 
dians. The following letter was written, apparently, to the 
government of Massachusetts : 

^^ Providence, I'th of May ^ 1668, (so called.) 
" I humbly oifer to consideration my long and constant 
experience, since it pleased God to bring me unto these 
parts, as to the Narraganset and Nipmuck people. 

" First, that all the Nipmucks were, unquestionably, 
subject to the Narraganset sachems, and, in a special man- 
ner to Mexham, the son of Canonicus, and late husband ta 
this old squaw sachem, now only surviving. I have abun- 
dant and daily proof of it, as plain and clear as that the 
inhabitants of Newbury or Ipswich, ifcc. are subject to the 
government of the Massachusetts colony. 

" 2. I was called by his Majesty's Commissioners to tes- 
tify in a like case between Philip and the Plymouth In- 
dians, on the one party, and the Narragansets on the 
other, and it pleased the committee to declare, that the 
King had not given them any commission to alter the In- 
dians' laws and customs, which they observed amongst 
themselves : most of which, although they are, like them- 

*John Rowland, Esq. says: '-I think there must have been a 
bridge at Weybosset before 1712." Perhaps the bridge ordered to be 
built over Moshassuck river, inlGG.2, and to which Mr. Williams' let- 
ter may refer, was intended to be somewhere between the present 
Great Bridge and Smitli's Bridge, for the purpose of getting access 
to the natural meadows at the head of the cove. The mention of 
" hay time," and the references of Mr. Williams to the '' hopes of 
meadow," Taviy strengthen this supposition. Mr. Howiand says, '^ I 
have frequently been told by Nathan Waterman, that teams and men 
on horseback used to cross the river (before his day) across the clam 
bed, opposite Angell's land (at low tide) and land somewhere on the- 
western shore. The Thomas Olney lot was where the Knight Dex- 
ter tavern now is, and Angell's was the next sorth, including part of 
the Baptist meeting-house lot, and Steeple street. In front of this,, 
lay the shoal place, called the clam-bed." May 14, IGGO, in a petition 
of the town to the General Assembly, against an assessment on the 
town of thirty pounds, to build a prison at Newport, the town said, 
that they had just spent one hundred and sixty pounds in building a 
bridge." April 27, 1GG3, George Sheppard gave all his lands west 
of seven mile line to the town, for '' maintaining a bridge at Weybos- 
set." 



.332 M B M O I R OP 

selves, barbarous, yet in the case of their mournings, they 
are more humane, and it seems to be more inhumane in 
those that professed subjection to this the very last year, 
under some kind of feigned protection of the English, to 
be singing and dancing, drinking, &>c. while the rest were 
lamenting their sachems' deaths. 

*' I abhor most of their customs ; I know they are bar- 
barous. I respect not one party more than the other, but 
I desire to witness truth ; and as I desire to witness against 
oppression, so, also, against the slighting of civil, yea, of 
barbarous order and government, as respecting every 
shadow of God's gracious appointments. 

*' This I humbly offer, as in the holy presence of God. 

ROGER WILLIAMS.'^ 

The following letter"^ gives us a view of son»e of the 
trials which Mr. Williams suffered : 

^ " For John Whipple, jun. these, 

*' Neighbor Whipple, 
*' I kindly thank you, that you so far have regarded my 
lines as to return me your thoughts, whether sweet or sour I 
desire not to mind. I humbly hope, that as you shall 
never find me self-conceited nor self-seeking, so, as to 
others, not pragmatical and a busy-body as you insinuate. 
My study is to be swift to hear, and slow to speak, and I 
could tell you of five or six grounds (it may be more) why 
I give this my testimony against this unrighteous and mon- 
strous proceeding of Christian brethren helping to hale one 
another before the world, whose song was lately and 
loudly sung in my ears, viz. the world would be quiet 
rnough, were it not for these holy brethren, their divisions 
and contentions. The last night, Sliadrach Manton told 
me that I had spoken bad words of Gregory Dexter (though 
Shadrach deals more ingenuously than yourself saying the 
same thing, for he tells me wherein,) viz. that I said he 
makes a ibol of his conscience. I told him I said so, and 
I think to our neighbor Dexter himself; for I believe he 
might as well be moderator or general deputy or general 

^ R. I. Lit. Rep. vol. i. pp. G3S-C40. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 333 

assistant, as go so far as he goes, in many particulars ; but 
what if I or my conscience be a fool, yet it is commenda- 
ble and admirable in him, that being a man of education, 
and of a noble calling, and versed in militaries, that his 
conscience forced him to be such a child in his own house, 
when W. Har. strained for the rate (which I approve of) with 
such imperious insulting over his conscience, which all con- 
scientious men will abhor to hear of However, I commend 
that man, whether Jew, or Turk, or Papist, or whoever, that 
steers no otherwise than his conscience dares, till his con- 
science tells him that God gives him a greater latitude. For, 
neighbor, you shall find it rare to meet with men of con- 
science, men that for fear and love of God dare not lie, nor 
be drunk, nor be contentious, nor steal, nor be covet- 
ous, nor voluptuous, nor ambitious, nor lazy-bodies, nor 
busy-bodies, nor dare displease God by omitting either 
service or suffering, though of reproach, imprisonment, 
banishment and death, because of the fear and love of 
God. 

"If W. Wickenden received a beast of W. Field, for 
ground of the same hold, I knew it not, and so spake the 
truth, as I understood it. 2. Though I have not spoke 
with him, yet I hear it was not of that hold or tenure, for 
we have had four sorts of bounds at least. 

"First, the grant of as large accommodations as any 
English in New-England had. This the sachems always 
promised me, and they had cause, for I was as a right hand 
unto them, to my great cost and travail. Hence I was 
sure of the Toceheunguanit meadows, and what could with 
any show of reason have been desired ; but some, (that never 
did this town nor colony good, and, it is feared, never will,) 
cried out, when Roger Williams had laid himself down as 
a stone in the dust, for after-comers to step on in town and 
colony, 'Who is Roger Williams? We know the Indians 
and the sachems as well as he. We will trust Roger Wil- 
liams no longer. We will have our bounds confirmed us 
under the sachems' hands before us.' 

" 2. Hence arose, to my soul cutting and grief, the 
second sort of bounds, viz. the bounds set under the hands 
of those great sachems Canonicus and Miantinomo, and 
^ere set so short (as to Mashapaug and Pawtucket, and at 
that time,) because they would not intrench upon the In- 
29 



334 MEMOIR OF 

dians inhabiting round about us, for the prevention of strife 
between us. 

" The third sort of bounds were of favor and grace, in- 
vented, as I think, and prosecuted by that noble spirit, 
now with God, Chad Brown. Presuming upon the sachems' 
grant to me, they exceeded the letter of the sachems' deed, 
so far as reasonably they judged, and this with promise of 
satisfaction to any native who should reasonably desire it. 
In this third sort of bounds, lay this piece of meadow 
hard by Captain Fenner's ground, which, v/ith two hogs, 
William Wickenden gave to W. Field for a small beast, 
&c. 

" Beside these three sort of bounds, there arose a fourth, 
like the fourth beast in Daniel, exceeding dreadful and 
terrible, unto which the Spirit of God gave no name nor 
bounds, nor can v^^e in the first rise of ours, only boundless 
bounds, or a monstrous beast, above all other beasts or 
monsters. Now, as from this fourth wild beast in Daniel, 
in the greater world, have arisen all the storms and tem- 
pests, factions and divisions, in our little world amongst us, 
and what the tearing consequences yet v/ill be, is only 
knovt^n to the Most Holy and Only Wise. 

" You conclude with your innocence and patience under 
my clamorous tongue, but I pray you not to forget that 
there are two basins. David had one, Pilate another. 
David washed his hands in innocence, and so did Pilate, 
and so do all parties, all the world over. As to inno- 
cence, my former paper saith something. As to patience, 
how can you say you are patient under my clamorous 
tongue, when that very speech is most impatient and un- 
christian ? My clamor and crying shall be to God and 
men (I hope without revenge or wrath) but for a little 
case, and that yourselves, and they that scorn and hate me 
most, may, if the Eternal please, find cooling in that hot, 
eternal day that is near approaching. This shall be the 
continual clamor or cry of 

"Your unvv^orthy 

friend and neighbor, 

"R. W. 

" Providence, Sth Jul}/, 1669, {so caUed.)" 

This letter is interestina: for several reasons. The refer- 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 335 

ence to Mr. Dexter's refusal to pay his taxes, from consci- 
entious scruples, shows, that Mr. Williams accurately dis- 
criminated between the rights of conscience, and a perver- 
sion of those rights. It is worthy of notice, too, that Mr. 
Williams condemned the conduct of Mr. Dexter, though 
an intimate friend ; and approved, in part, at least, that of 
Mr. Ilarrisj though a bitter hostility existed between them 



336 MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER XXV. 



Controversy with the Quakers — Philip's war — letters — Mr. Williams' 
death. 

We will now give a brief account of Mr. Williams' con- 
troversy with the Quakers. It was an unhappy strife, in 
which all parties displayed more zeal than Christian meek- 
ness or charity. It was especially unfortunate for Mr. 
Williams, for it plunged hmi, in his old age, into a dispute, 
in which he could not hope to effect much good, and which 
was certain to draw upon him much odium. 

His motives, however, ought to be clearly understood. 
The colony of Rhode-Island had incurred reproach among 
the other colonies, because she refused to join in a perse- 
cution of the Quakers. Rhode-Island was the refuge of 
these persons, some of the magistrates, at this time, were 
of that sect, and it was asserted, that the public feeling in 
Rhode-Island was friendly to their doctrines and practices. 
Mr. Williams declares, in his book on the controversy, that 
he was induced to engage in a dispute with them, in order 
to bear public testimony, that while he was decidedly op- 
posed to any measures which tended to impair liberty of 
conscience, he nevertheless disapproved the principles of 
the Quakers.* He says, that when he met them at New- 
port, on the first day of the dispute, " I took my seat at the 
other end of the house opposite to them, and began telling 
them, that the Most High was my witness, that not out of 
any prejudice against, or disrespect to, the persons of the 
Quakers, many of whom I knew and did love and honor, 
nor any foolish passion of pride or boldness, for I desired 



* '•' I had in mine eye the vindicating of this colony for receiving 
of such persons whom others would not. We suffer for their sakes, 
and are accounted their abettors. That, therefore, together with the 
improvement of our liberties, which the God of heaven and our 
King's Majesty have graciously given, I might give a public testi- 
mony against their opinions, in such a way and exercise, I judged it 
incumbent upon my spirit and conscience to do it (in some regards) 
more than most in the colony." p. 2G. 



U O G E R WILLIAMS. 337 

to be sensible of my many decays of my house of clay, and 
other ways ; nor any earthly or worldly ends I had, that 
occasioned this trouble to myself and them." p. 26. 

Candor must admit, that his motives were laudable — a 
zeal for the honor of the colony, and for what he believed 
to be the truth. He accordingly took occasion, when the 
celebrated George Fox* was in Rhode-Island, to propose a 
public discussion, at Newport and Providence, in which 
the principles of the Quakers should be examined, in a 
friendly debate. 

The challenge was in these words : 

" To George Fox, or any other of m.y countrymen at 
Newport, who say they are the apostles and messengers of 
Christ Jesus. In humble confidence of the help of the 
Most High, I offer to maintain, in public, against all comers, 
these fourteen propositions following, to wit : the first seven 
at Newport, and tlie other seven at Providence. For the 
time when, I refer it to George Fox and his friends, at 
Newport." 

Such public debates were not uncom.mon during the re- 
formation, in Germany, and in later times, in England. 
They have been held, in our own days, but their effect has 
seldom been beneficial to the cause of truth. They are 
more adapted to irritate than to convince. Few men have 
sufficient self-command to preserve their temper, in a con- 
troversy conducted through the press. When brought into 
personal contact, before a large assembly, the meekest m.en 
could scarcely avoid being chafed and petulant. Such 
contests are like the battles of old times, when the spear 
or the sword was the chief weapon, and the combatants, 

" This remarkable mau was born at Dniytoii, in Leicestershire, in 
1G24. He v.-as placed as an apprentice to a grazier, but. at the age 
of nineteen, he thought himself called to forsake every thing else, 
and devote himself to religion. In IGIS, he began to preach, and 
adopted the peculiar language and manners which have distinguish- 
ed his followers. He incurred persecution, vvas often imprisoned, 
and treated with great severity. In 16G9, he married, and soon after 
visited America, where he remained two years, and made many 
proselytes. He returned to Encjland, and after many sufferings, he 
died in 1690, in the sixty-seventTi year of his age. His Vvorks form 
three folio volumes. '- He was undoubtedly a man of strong natural 
parts, and William Penn speaks in high teims of his meekness, 
humility and temperance." — Ency. Amer. art. George Fox. 
29* 



33S MEMOIR OP 

being brought hand to hand, fought with embittered ran- 
cor and dreadful carnage. Modern battles, in which the 
parties are at a greater distance, are less sanguinary. The 
result of these disputes, moreover, is as uncertain a test of 
truth and justice, as the termination of the ancient appeals 
to personal combat. Stronger lungs and greater self-conceit 
have sometimes enabled the advocate of error to win tlie 
victory. 

The fourteen propositions of Mr. Williams we shall not 
quote. They affirmed, that the principles of the Quakers 
were unscriptural and pernicious. 

Mr. Williams sent these propositions to Newport, but 
George Fox left the town for England, without seeing 
them. Mr. Y/illiams asserted, that Fox departed in order 
to avoid the debate, and he condescended to a pun on 
*' George Fox's silly departing." This insinuation was un- 
founded and unjustifiable. Fox unceremoniously charged 
him with lying, but this gross accusation cannot be admit- 
ted. Mr. Williams undoubtedly thought his assertion 
true,* though he ought not to have made it without better 
authority. 

The debate commenced, however, at Newport, on the 
9th of August, 1672. Mr. Williams rowed, in a boat, to 
Newport, thirty miles, a feat which few men of seventy- 
three years could perform, in these degenerate days. He 
arrived at Newport about midnight. t The next day the de- 
bate commenced, in the Q,uaker meeting-house. John 
Stubs, John Burnyeat and William Edmundson were the 
champions opposed to him. He speaks of the two former 
as able and learned men. The debate continued three 
days. It was, according to his account, a very disorderly 
scene. There was no moderator, and Mr. Williams com- 
plains of frequent and rude interruptions. His health was 
feeble, and he says, that, on the morning of the second 



*Tlie letters were sent, through some friends of Mr. Fox, to the Dep- 
uty Governor Cranston. They were dated July 13, but Mr. Cranston 
did not receive them till the 2oth, whicli, as he said, excited his sur- 
prise. There was some room for suspicion, that the letters were 
purposely concealed till Mr. Fox had gone. 

t " God graciously assisted me in rowing all day, with my old 
bones, so that I got to Newport toward the midnight before the 
morning appointed." p. 24. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 339 

day, " I heartily wished that I might rather have kept my 
bed, than have gone forth to a whole day's fresh disputes." 
His brother, Robert Williams, then a schoolmaster in 
Newport, attempted to aid him, but his interference was 
not permitted by his opponents. Mr. Williams' demeanor, 
during the controversy, was, apparently, patient and col- 
lected. The debate was renewed at Providence on the 
17th, and continued one day, when it was terminated, 
without producing any change of opinion on either side. 

Mr. Williams wrote an account of this dispute, in a large 
book, of 327 pages. It was entitled, " George Fox digged 
out of his Burrowes," &c., in allusion to a book which 
Fox and his friend Edward Burrowes (or Burrough) had 
written. Of Mr. Williams' book we shall give a further 
account. It is able and acute, but it is disfigured by much 
severe language. 

Fox and Burnyeat wrote a reply, entitled, " A New- 
England Firebrand Quenched," in which they railed at 
Mr. Williams, in a coarse and bitter style.* 

The following letter of Mr. Williams alludes to the pub- 
lication of his book against Fox : f 

" My dear friend, Samuel Hubbard, 
" To yourself and aged companion, my loving respects in 
the Lord Jesus, who ought to be our hope of glory, begun 
in this life, and enjoyed to all eternity. I have herein re- 

* In the General Assembly, in 1C72, it was voted, that the depu- 
ties should receive two shillings per day. A law was passed, ex- 
empting from military duty persons who had conscientious scruples. 
On September 2, 1G73, it was enacted, that every person who sold 
liquor, so that any one became drunk, or who kept a gaming house, 
should be fined six shillings. Constables were appointed to watch 
on the ''first day of the week" against all " dcboystness." There 
was, about this time, a trial of an Indian, by a jury, half of whom 
were Indians. In 1G79, a fine of five shillings was imposed for em- 
ploying an Indian or other servant on the first day ; and the same 
fine, or sitting in the stocks three hours, for gaming, playing, shoot- 
ing, or sitting drinking in an alehouse " more than necessity re- 
quireth," on the first day. It does not appear, that there was any 
rule, by which to judge of the " necessity." The doctrine of total 
abstinence was then unknown. 

On the lltli of March, 1G74-5, Mr. Williams acknowledged the 
receipt from Benjamin Hcrnden of six shillings, ninepence, making 
up eleven pounds, " for the house and land sold to him, which was 
John Clawson's." 

t Backus, vol. i. n. 510. >? 



340 MEMOIR O F 

turned your little, yet great remembrance of the hand of 
the Lord to yourself and your son, late departed. I praise 
the Lord for your humble kissing of his holy rod, and ac- 
knowledging his just and righteous, together with his 
gracious and merciful, dispensation to you. I rejoice, also, 
to read your heavenly desires and endeavors, that your 
trials may be gain to your own souls, and the souls of the 
youth of the place, and all of us. You are not unwilling, 
I judge, that I deal plainly and friendly with you. After 
all that I have seen and read and compared about the sev- 
enth day, (and I have earnestly and carefully read and 
weighed all I could come at in God's holy presence) I can- 
not be removed from Calvin's mind, and indeed Paul's 
mind. Col. ii. that all those sabbaths of seven days were 
figures, types and shadows, and forerunners of the Son of 
God, and that the change is made from the remembrance 
of the first creation, and that (figurative) rest on the sev- 
enth day, to the remembrance of the second creation on 
the first, on which our Lord arose conqueror from the 
dead. Accordingly, I have read many, but see no satisfy- 
ing answer to those three Scriptures, chiefly Acts 20, 1 i 
Cor. 16, Rev. 1, in conscience to which I make some poor J 
conscience to God as to the rest day. As for thoughts for 
England, I humbly hope the Lord hath hewed me to write 
a large narrative of all those four days' agitation between 
the Quakers and myself; if it please God I cannot get it 
printed in New-England, I have great thoughts and pur- 
poses for old. My age, lameness, and many other weak- 
nesses, and the dreadful hand of God at sea, calls for deep 
consideration. What God may please to bring forth in the 
spring, his holy wisdom knows. If he please to bring to 
an absolute purpose, I will send you word, and my dear 
friend, Obadiah Hohnes, who sent me a message to the 
same purpose. At present, I pray salute respectively Mr. 
John Clarke and his brothers, Mr. Tory, Mr. Edes, Ed- 
ward Smith, William Hiscox, Stephen Mumford, and other 
friends, whose preservation, of the island, and this country, 
I humbly beg of the Father of Mercies, in whom I am 
yours unworthy, R. W." 

The calamitous and decisive war with Philip claims our 
notice. This chief, whose Indian name was Metacom, 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 341 

but who received the name of Philip from the English, was 
the second son of Massassoit, the principal sachem of the 
Pokanokets. Philip succeeded his brother Alexander, who 
died in 1662, in consequence, it has been supposed, of his 
shame and resentment for what he thought an insult from 
the whites. Philip was an able and ambitious chief. He 
saw the increasing power of the colonists, and clearly per- 
ceived, that the utter extinction of the Indians would be 
the result, unless the progress of the whites could be ar- 
rested. It is said, however, that he was averse to com- 
mencing hostilities, being aware that the colonists were too 
powerful to be successfully resisted ;* but he was forced 
into the war by the ardor of his young warriors. All the 
Indian tribes remained quiet, with the exception of a few 
hostile indications, for nearly forty years after the destruc- 
tion of the Pequods. 

Rumors of intended war on the part of Philip were cir- 
culated in 1671. The Governor of Plymouth, and several 
other gentlemen from Plymouth and Massachusetts, invited 
Philip to meet them at Taunton ; but he refused to come, 
till, it is said,t Mr. Williams and Mr. Brown, of Swansea, 
were employed as mediators. Mr. Williams' agency was, 
as usual, successful, and Philip met the Governor, dis- 
claimed all hostile designs, promised future fidelity, and 
surrendered about seventy guns, as a proof of his sincerity. 
The war was thus delayed four years. 

The interval was, it appears, employed by Philip in 
making preparations for war. He endeavored to concert 
a general league among the Indians in New-England, and 
it is said, that most of the tribes entered into his plans. 
The Narragansets, especially, who still nourished a desire 
of vengeance for the treacherous murder, as they viewed 
it, of their sachem, Miantinomo, engaged to aid Philip, 
with a force of four thousand warriors, in the spring of 
16764 



* Callender, p. 73. t Backus, vol. i. p. 418. 

t Hubbard's Narrative, p. 55, edition ofl775. Hutchinson, vol. i. 
p. 40G, says, that the Narragansets, in 1G75, were supposed to have 
2000 warriors. Mr. Callender, p. 75, thinks that Hubbard's and 
Hutchinson's accounts may be reconciled, by supposing that the four 
thousand warriors to be raised by the Narragansets included other 
Indians within their influence. 



342 MEMOIR OF 

But, for some cause, hostilities commenced before the 
time appointed. Philip is supposed to have been urged to 
begin the war, by the death of John Sassamon, an Indian, 
who had served Philip as a secretary. He communicated 
to the English the designs of Philip, and he was soon after 
found murdered. Three Indians, who were believed to be 
his murderers, were tried and executed, at Plymouth, in 
June, 1675. Philip, who was thought to be implicated in 
the murder, immediately commenced hostilities, by attack- 
ing the town of Swansea, on the 24th of June. The war, 
being commenced, was prosecuted with great fury, many 
towns were burnt, and many of the inhabitants killed. It 
was a mercy to the whites, that the Indians had not fully 
matured their plans and begun the contest in concert. 
The Narragansets renewed their league with the colonists,* 
though they afterwards joined in the war against them. 

The following letter of Mr. Williams to Governor Lev- 
erett, of Massachusetts, is very interesting and character- 
istic : 

"■ To the Governor at Boston, present. Per neighbor 
Samuel Whiffel. 

'^ Providence, 11, 8, 75, (so accounted.) 
" Sir, 

" Yours of the 7th I gladly and thankfully received, and 
humbly desire to praise that Most High and Holy Hand, in- 
visible and only wise, who casts you down, by so many 
public and personal trials, and lifts you up again with any 
(lucida intervcdla) mitigations and refreshments. Ah in- 
ferno nulla redemptio : from the grave and hell no return. 
Here, like Noah's dove, we have our checker work, blacks 
and whites come out and go into the ark, out and in again 
till the last, whom we never see back again. 

" The business of the day in New-England is not only to 
keep ourselves from murdering, our houses, barns, &c. 
from firing, to destroy and cut off the barbarians, or sub-^ 
due and reduce them, but our main and principal opus diet 
is, to listen to what the Eternal speaketh to the whole ship^ 
(the country, colonies, towns, &c.) and each private cabin, 
family, person, &lc. He will speak peace to his people ; 
therefore, saith David, ' I will listen to what Jehovah 
speaketh.' Oliver, in straits and defeats, especially at His- 

* Callender, p. 75. 



il O G E R V/ I L L I A M S. 



34^ 



paniola, desired all to speak and declare freely what they 
thought the mind of God was. H. Vane (then laid by) 
wrote his discourse, entitled "A Healing Question, " but for 
touching upon (that noli me tangere) State sins, IL Vane 
went prisoner to Carisbrook Castle, in the Isle of Wight. 
Oh, Sir, I humbly subscribe (ex animo) to your short and 
long prayer, in your letter. The Lord keep us from our 
own deceivings. I know there have been, and are, many 
precious and excellent spirits amongst you, (if you take 
ilight before me, I will then say you are one of them, with- 
out daubing,) but rchus sic stantibus, as the wind blows, 
the united colonies dare not permit, Candida ct bona Jide, 
two dangerous (supposed) enemies : 1. dissenting and non- 
conforming worshippers, and 2. liberty of free (really free) 
disputes, debates, writing, printing, fcc. ; the Most High 
hath begun and given some taste of these two dainties in 
some parts, and will more and more advance them when 
(as Luther and Erasmus to the Emperor, Charles V., and 
the Duke of Saxony,) those two gods are famished, the 
Pope's crown and the Monks' bellies. The same Luther 
was wont to say, that every man had a pope in his belly, 
and Calvin expressly wrote to Melancthon, that Luther 
made himself another Pope ; yet, which of us will not say, 
Jeremiah, thou liest, when he tells us (and from God) we 
must not go down to Egypt? 

'' Sir, I use a bolder pen to your noble spirit than to many, 
because the Father of Lights hath shown your soul more 
of the mysteries of iniquity than other excellent heads and 
hearts dream of, and because, whatever you or I be in 
other respects, yet in this you will act a pope, and grant 
me your love, pardon and indulgence. 

'' Sir, since the doleful news from Springfield, here it is 
said that Philip, with a strong body of many hundred cut- 
throats, steers for Providence and Seekonk, some say for 
Norwich and Stonington, and some say your forces have 
had a loss by their cutting off some of your men, in their 
passing over a river. Fiat voluntas Dei, there I humbly 
rest, and let all go but himself. Yet, Sir, I am requested 
by our Capt. Fenner to give you notice, that at his farm, 
in the woods, he had it from a native, that Philip's great 
design is (among all other possible advantages and treach- 
eries) to draw C. Mosely and others, your forces, by train- 



344 MEMOIR OF 

ing and drilling' and seeming flights, into such places as 
are full of long grass, flags, sedge, &c. and then inviron 
them round with fire, smoke and bullets. Some say no 
wise soldier will so be caught ; but as I told the young 
prince, on his return lately from you, all their war is com- 
mootin ; they have commootined our houses, our cattle, our 
heads, &c., and that not by their artillery, but our weapons ; 
that yet they were so cowardly, that they have not taken 
one poor fort from us in all the country, nor won, nor 
scarce fought, one battle since the beginning. I told him 
and his men, being then in my canoe, with his men with 
him, that Philip was his cawkakinnamuck, that is, looking 
glass. He was deaf to all advice, and now was overset, 
Cooshkowwawy, and catcht at every part of the country to 
save himself, but he shall never get ashore, &lc. He 
answered me in a consenting, considering kind of way, 
Philip Cooshkowwawy : I went with my great canoe to 
help him over from Seekonk (for to Providence no Indian 
comes) to Pawtuxet side. I told him I would not ask him 
news, for I knew matters were private ; only I told him that 
if he were false to his engagements, we would pursue them 
with a winter's war, when they should not, as musketoes 
and rattlesnakes in warm weather, bite us, &c. 

" Sir, I carried him and Mr. Smith a glass of wine, but 
Mr. Smith not coming, I gave wine and glass to himself, 
and a bushel of apples to his men, and being therewith 
(as beasts are) caught, they gave me leave to say any 
thing, acknowledged loudly your great kindness in Boston, 
and mine, and yet Capt. Fenner told me yesterday, that he 
thinks they will prove our worst enemies at last. I am 
between fear and hope, and humbly wait, making sure, as 
Haselrig's motto was, sure of my anchor in heaven, Tan- 
tum in Coelis, only in heaven. Sir, there I long to meet 
you. 

^' Your most unworthy, 

ROGER WILLIAMS. 

" To Mrs. Leverett, and other honored and beloved 
friends, humble respects, &:.c. 

" Sir, I hope your men fire afl the woods before them,&/C. 

" Sir, I pray not a line to me, except on necessary bus- 
iness ; only give me leave (as you do) to use my foolish 
boldness to visit yourself, as I have occasion. I would not 
add to your troubles." 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 345 

The war occasioned great alarm and distress. It spread 
over New-England, and threatened, for a while, the de- 
struction of the colonies. 

Many of the inhabitants of Providence and of other 
towns removed to Newport, for safety ; but a considerable 
number remained, among whom was Mr. Williams, though 
it seems his wife and family removed to the island.* 

Mr. Williams was very active, notwithstanding his age. 
He accepted a military commission, and the title, " Captain 
Roger Williams," appears on the records. It certainly 
displayed spirit and patriotism in a man of seventy-seven 
years, to buckle on his armor for the defence of his home 
and his fellow-citizens. He sent the following proposition 
to the town : " I pray the town, in the sense of the late 
bloody practices of the natives, to give leave to so many as 
can agree with William Field, to bestow some charge upon 
fortifying his house, for security to women and children. 
Also to give me leave, and so many as shall agree, to put 
up some defence on the hill, between the mill and the 
highway, for the like safety of the women and children in 
that part of the town." This proposal was signed by eleven 
persons, who subscribed various sums, to defray the ex- 
pense. The highest subscription was two pounds, six shil- 
lings, except that of Mr. Williams, which was ten pounds, 
though we may presume that he was not the richest man 
among them. 

A garrison was established at Providence, by the Gen- 
eral Assembly, with seven men, under the command of 
Captain Arthur Fenner, with a provision, however, that it 
should " not eclipse Captain Williams' power in the exercise 
of the train bands there." 

The town was attacked by the Indians, on the 29th of 
March, 1676, and twenty-nine houses were 'burnt, among 
which was that, in which the records of the town were 



*TIie following memorandum appears on the records of Provi- 
dence, about August 30, 1676, after the death of Philip : 

" By God's providence, it seasonably came to pass, that Provi- 
dence Williams brought up his mother from Newport in his sloop, 
and cleared the town by his vessel of all the Indians, to the great 
peace and content of all the inhabitants." The Indians, here men- 
tioned, were probably prisoners. 

30 



346 MEMOIR OF 

kept. These were thrown into the mill-pond, and after- 
wards recovered, though much injured. 

It is said, that when the Indians approached Providence, 
Mr. Williams took his staff, and went to meet them on the 
heights north of the cove. He remonstrated with the 
sachems, and warned them of the power and vengeance of 
the English. " Massachusetts," said he, " can raise thous- 
ands of men at this moment, and if you kill them, the King 
of England will supply their place as fast as they fall." 
" Well," answered one of the chieftains, " let them come. 
We are ready for them. But as for you, brother Williams, 
you are a good man. You have been kind to us many 
years. Not a hair of your head shall be touched."* 

We cannot narrate the incidents of this dreadful war. 
The Indians suffered a severe defeat, December 19, 1675, 
at the capture of their fort, situated in a swamp in the 
present town of South-Kingstown. In the battle, about a 
thousand of the Indians are supposed to have been killed, 
and about two hundred of the whites, including six captains. 

Philip was finally killed, August 12, 1676, near Mount 
Hope, by an Indian, under the command of Col. Church. 
The war now closed. It decided the fate of the New- 
England Indians. The Pokanokets were nearly exterminat- 
ed. The Narragansets never recovered from the blow. 
Thousands of the natives were killed, and many who were 
made prisoners, were sent out of the country and sold as 
slaves. 

But the victory was dearly bought by the colonists. 
Their whole disposable force was put in requisition. Thir- 
teen towns were entirely destroyed by the Indians ; six 
hundred dwelling-houses were burnt, and about the same 
number of the colonists, including twelve captains, were 
killed, so that* almost every family lost a relative. The 
destruction of property, and the cost of the war, were im- 
mense. The disbursements of the colonies were estimated 
at one hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling. f 

The terror and distress which this war produced may 



* Baylies' History of Plymouth, part iii. p. 114. Thatcher's In- 
dian Biography, vol. i. p. 309. Backus, vol. i. p. 424. 

t Thatcher's Indian Biography, vol. i. p. 162. Morton. Appendix 
A. A. p. 425. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 347 

explain, if they cannot justify, many acts of the whites. 
The body of Philip was treated with an indignity, which 
dishonored his captors. His head was sent to Plymouth, 
where it was exposed on a gibbet, and his hand was 
sent to Boston. His little son was taken prisoner, and 
several of the divines were of opinion, that he ought to 
be put to death, on the strength of Jewish precedents ; 
but he was spared, only to be sold as a slave in Ber- 
muda. 

At Providence, the following occurrence took place, in 
August, after the death of Philip : 

" August 25. One Chuff, an Indian, so called in time 
of peace, because of his surliness against the English, could 
scarcely come in, being wounded some few days before, by 
Providence men. His wounds were corrupted and stank, 
and because he had been a ringleader all the war to most 
of the mischiefs to our houses and cattle, and what English 
he could, the inhabitants of the town cried out for justice 
against him, threatening themselves to kill him, if the au- 
thority did not. For which reason the Captain Roger Wil- 
liams caused the drum to be beat, the town council and 
council of war to be called. All called for justice and ex- 
ecution. The council of war gave sentence, and he was 
shot to death, to the great satisfaction of the town." 

At a town meeting, August 14, 1676, a list was made of 
persons " who stayed and went not away," and to these 
persons, it was judged, certain Indians, who were captives, 
ought to be delivered as slaves, or servants, for a term of 
years. A committee was appointed on the subject, who 
presented the following report : 

" Report of the Committee on sale of Indians. 

'' We, whose names are underwritten, being chosen by 
the town, to set the disposal of the Indians now in town, 
we agree, that Roger Williams, Nathan Waterman, Thomas 
Fenner, Henry Ashton, John Mowry, Daniel Abbott, James 
Olney, Valentine Whitman, John Whipple, sen., Ephraim 
Pray, John Pray, John Angell, James Angell, Thomas 
Arnold, Abraham Mann, Thomas Field, Edward Bennett, 
Thomas Clements, William Lancaster, William Hopkins, 
William Hawkins, William Harris, Zachariah Field, 
Samuel Winsor, and Captain Fenner, shall have each a 



348 MEMOIR OF 

whole share in the product. Joseph Woodward, and Rich- 
ard Pray, each three fourths of a share. John Smith, mil- 
ler, Edward Smith, Samuel Whipple, Nelle Whipple, and 
Thomas Walim, each half share. 

" Inhabitants wanting to have Indians at the price they 
sell at Rhode-Island or elsewhere : 

*'A11 under five years, to serve till thirty; above five and 
under ten, till twenty-eight ; above ten to fifteen, till twenty- 
seven ; above fifteen to twenty, till twenty-six years ; from 
twenty to thirty, shall serve eight years ; all above thirty, 
seven years. 

Roger Williams, Thomas Field, 

Thomas Harris, sen. John Whipple, jr. 

Thomas Angell, (his mark.) 

August 14, 1676." 

We cannot, at this day, determine, fairly, the question, 
how far the sale of the Indian captives was necessary or 
just. It is, however, painful to our feelings ; and we can- 
not but be surprised and sorry, to see the name of Roger 
Williams connected with such a transaction. 

In May, 1677, Mr. Williams was elected an Assistant, 
but he declined, on account, probably, of his age. About 
this time, he wrote thus to the town of Providence : "I pray 
the town, that the place of meeting be certain, and some 
course settled for payment ; that the clerk and sergeant be 
satisfied, according to moderation, that the town business 
may go on cheerfully ; that the business of the rate (paid 
by so many already) be finished ; that the old custom of 
order be kept in our meetings, and those unruly be re- 
proved, or upon obstinacy, cast out from sober and free 
men's company ; that our ancient use of arbitration be 
brought into esteem again ; that (it being constantly re- 
ported, that Connecticut is upon the gaining of his Majesty's 
consent to enslave us to their parish worship) we consider 
what we ought to do."* 

In October, 1677, commissioners from the several colo- 
nies met at Providence, to settle the long contested disputes 
between Mr. Harris and others about lands. Mr. Harris 
laid before the Court a long statement, in which he pre- 

* Backus, vol. i. p. 466. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 349 

ferred heavy charges against Mr. Williams, and the latter 
made counter statements, in a similar style. The result of 
the examination was favorable to the claims of Mr. Harris 
and his friends, who obtained five verdicts from a jury. 
But the disputes were not settled, till more than thirty years 
afterwards.* Our limits do not allow us to enter into par- 
ticulars, which could not be detailed without a tedious and 
unprofitable prolixity. They properly belong to a history 
of the State. 

Of the few last years of Mr. Williams' life, we have 
scanty notices. The following lettert contains a reference 
to his age and health, and is a specimen of his constant 
zeal to serve his friends : 

" Narragansct, 21 July, 1679, {^ut vulgo.) 
" Roger Williams, of Providence, in the Narraganset 
Bay, in New-England, being (by God's mercy) the first 
beginner of the mother town of Providence, and of the col- 
ony of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, being 
now near to fourscore years of age, yet (by God's mercy) 
of sound understanding and memory ; do humbly and faith- 
fully declare, that Mr. Richard Smith, senior, who for his 
conscience to God left fair possessions in Glocestershire, 
and adventured, with his relations and estate, to New-Eng- 
land, and was a most acceptable inhabitant, and a prime 
leading man in Taunton and Plymouth colony ; for his 
conscience sake, many differences arising, he left Taunton 
and came to the Narraganset country, where, (by God's 
mercy and the favor of the Narraganset sachems) he broke 
the ice at his great charge and hazard, and put up in the 
thickest of the barbarians, the first English house amongst 
them. 2. I humbly testify, that about forty years from this 
date, he kept possession, coming and going himself, children 



* Mr. Harris soon after went to England, on this business, but the 
vessel was captured by an Algerine or Tunisian corsair, and he was 
sold for a slave. His family, in Rhode-Island, redeemed him, by the 
sale of a part of his property. He arrived in England, but died there. 
He was an able man, and we may hope, a good man, notwithstand- 
ing some infirmities. His quarrels with Roger Williams were very 
discreditable to them both. On which side the most blame lay, we 
cannot now decide. 

t Backus, vol. i. p. 421. 

30* 



350 MEMOIR OF ♦ 

and servants, and he had quiet possession of his housing, 
lands and meadow ; and there, in his own house, with much 
serenity of soul an^d comfort, he yielded up his spirit to 
God, (the Father of spirits) in peace. 3. I do humbly and 
faithfully testify as abovesaid, that since his departure, his 
honored son, Capt. Richard Smith, hath kept possession, 
(with much acceptance with English and pagans) of his 
father's housing, lands and meadows, with great improve- 
ment also by his great cost and industry. And in the late 
bloody Pagan war, I knowingly testify and declare, that it 
pleased the Most High to make use of himself in person, 
his housing, goods, corn, provisions and cattle, for a garri- 
son and supply for the whole army of New-England, under 
the command of the ever to be honored General Winslow, 
for the service of his Majesty's honor and country of New- 
England. 4. I do also humbly declare, that the said Capt. 
Richard Smith, junior, ought, by all the rules of equity, 
justice and gratitude, (to his honored father and himself) 
to be fairly treated with, considered, recruited, honored, 
and, by his Majesty's authority, confirmed and established 
in a peaceful possession of his father's and his own posses- 
sions in this pagan wilderness, and Narraganset country. 
The premises I humbly testify, as now leaving this country 
and this world. 

ROGER WILLIAMS." 

The following note was directed to Mr. Daniel Abbott, 
the town clerk of Providence.* The " considerations pre- 
sented touching rates," seem to have accompanied it. 
They deserve to be preserved, for many reasons. They 
show the unabated zeal of Mr. Williams, for the public 
welfare. The opposition to the payment of taxes was a 
sore evil, which he often mentioned and condemned : 

*' My good friend, loving remembrance to you. It has 

* In 1679, a fine of five shillings was enacted for " riding gallop 
in Providence street." This implies, that the town was becoming 
populous again, after the Indian war, during which it suffered much. 
Previously to the war it contained about 500 inhabitants, but many 
of them removed to Newport. A rate of sixty pounds, ordered in 
1679, was apportioned thus : Newport, eighteen ; Portsmouth, eleven ; 
Providence, four; Warwick, four ; Westerly, four ; New-Shoreham, 
four* Kingstown, six ; East- Greenwich, three; Jamestown, six. 



ROGER WILLIAM S. 351 

pleased the Most High and Only Wise, to stir up your 
spirit to be one of the chiefest stakes in our poor hedge. I, 
therefore, not being able to come to you, present you with 
a few thoughts about the great stumbling-block, to them 
that are willing to stumble and trouble themselves, our rates. 
James Matison had one copy of me, and Thomas Arnold 
another. This I send to yourself and the town, (for it may 
be I shall not be able to be at meeting.) I am grieved 
that you do so much service for so bad recompense ; but I 
am persuaded you shall find cause to say, the Most High 
God of recompense, who was Abraham's great reward, hath 
paid me. 

Considerations presented toucJiing rates. 
" 1. Government and order in families, towns, &c. is 
the ordinance of the Most High, Rom. 13, for the peace 
and good of mankind. 2. Six things are written in the 
hearts of all mankind, yea, even in pagans : 1st. That there 
is a Deity; 2d. That some actions are nought; 3d. That 
the Deity will punish ; 4th. That there is another life ; 5th. 
That marriage is honorable; 6th. That mankind cannot 
keep together without some government. 3. There is no 
Englishman in his Majesty's dominions or elsewhere, who 
is not forced to submit to government. 4. There is not a 
man in the world, except robbers, pirates and rebels, but 
doth submit to government. 5. Even robbers, pirates and 
rebels themselves cannot hold together, but by some law 
among themselves and government. 6. One of these two 
great laws in the world must prevail, either that of judges 
and justices of peace in courts of peace, or the law of arms, 
the sword and blood. 7. If it comes from the courts of 
trials of peace, to the trial of the sword and blood, the con- 
quered is forced to seek law and government. 8. Till 
matters come to a settled government, no man is ordinarily 
sure of his house, goods, lands, cattle, wife, children or life. 
9. Hence is that ancient maxim. It is better to live under 
a tyrant in peace, than under the sioord, or where every man 
is a tyrant. 10. His Majesty sends governors to Barba- 
does, Virginia, &c. but to us he shews greater favor in our 
charter, to choose whom we please. 11. No charters are 
obtained without great suit, favor or charges. Our first 
cost a hundred pounds (though I never received it all ;) 
our second about a thousand ; Connecticut about six thou- 



352 MEMOIR OF 

sand, &c. 12. No government is maintained without trib- 
ute, custom, rates, taxes, &/C. 13. Our charter excels all ~j 
in New-England, or in the loorld, as to the souls of men. 14. 
It pleased God, Rom. 13, to command tribute, custom, and 
consequently rates, not only for fear, but for conscience 
sake. 15. Our rates are the least, by far, of any colony in 
New-England. 16. There is no man that hath a vote in 
town or colony, but he hath a hand in making the rates hy 
himself or his deputies. 17. In our colony the General As- 
sembly, Governor, magistrates, deputies, towns, town-clerks, 
raters, constables, &/C. have done their duties, the failing 
lies upon particular persons. 18. It is but folly to resist, 
(one or more, and if one, why not more ?) God hath stirred 
up the spirit of the Governor, magistrates and officers, driven 
to it by necessity, to be unanimously resolved to see the 
matter finished ; and it is the duty of every man to main- 
tain, encourage, and strengthen the hand of authority. 
19. Black clouds (some years) have hung over Old and 
New-England heads. God hath been wonderfully patient 
and long-suffering to us; but who sees not changes and 
calamities hanging over us? 20. All men fear, that this 
blazing herald from heaven* denounceth from the Most 
High, wars, pestilence, famines ; is it not then our wisdom 
to make and keep peace with God and man ? 
" Your old unworthy servant, 

'' ROGER WILLIAMS. 
^^ Providence, 15th Jan. 1680-1, {so called.)" 

The following letter to Governor Bradstreet,f of Massa- 
chusetts, contains a notice of Mr. Williams' health, and 
other interesting topics : 

"To my much honored, kind friend, the Gov. Brad- 
street, at Boston, present. 

" Providence, 6 May, 1682, {iit vulgo.) 
" Sir, 
" Your person and place are born to trouble as the sparks 
fly upward ; yet I am grieved to disturb your thoughts or 

* Referring to the great comet of 1680, which was supposed to have 
approached so near to the sun, as to be heated two thousand times 
hotter than red hot iron. 

t 2 His. Col. viii. p. 196. 



ROGER \y I L L I A IM S. 353 

hands with any thing from me, and yet am refreshed with 
the thought, that sometimes you subscribe [your willing 
servant :] and that your love and willingness will turn to 
your account also. 

^' Sir, by John Whipple of Providence, I wrote lately 
(though the letter lay long by him) touching the widow 
Messinger's daughter, Sarah Weld, of Boston, whom I be- 
lieve Joseph Homan, of Boston, hath miserably deluded, 
slandered, oppressed (her and his child) by barbarous in- 
humanity, so that I humbly hope your mercy and justice 
will gloriously in public kiss each other. 

" Sir, this enclosed tells you that being old and weak and 
bruised (with rupture and colic) and lameness on both my 
feet, I am directed, by the Father of our spirits, to desire to 
attend his infinite Majesty with a poor mite, (which makes 
but two farthings.) By my fire-side I have recollected the 
discourses which (by many tedious journeys) I have had 
Avith the scattered English at Narraganset, before the war 
and since. I have reduced them unto those twenty two 
heads, (enclosed) which is near thirty sheets of my writing : 
I would send them to the Narragansets and others ; there 
is no controversy in them, only an endeavor of a particular 
match of each poor sinner to his Maker. For printing, I 
am forced to write to my friends at Massachusetts, Con- 
necticut, Plymouth, and our own colony, that he that hath 
a shilling and a heart to countenance and promote such 
a soul work, may trust the great Paymaster (who is before- 
hand with us already) for an hundreth for one in this life. 
Sir, I have many friends at Boston, but pray you to call in 
my kind friends Capt. Brattle and Mr. Seth Perry, who 
may, by your wise discretions, ease yourself of any bur- 
then. I write to my honored acquaintance at Roxbury, 
Mr. Dudley and Mr. Eliot, and Mr. Stoughton, at Dorches- 
ter, and to Capt. Gookins, at Cambridge, and pray yourself 
and him to consult about a little help from Charlestown, 
where death has stript me of all my acquaintance. Sir, if 
you can return that chapter of my reply to G ton, con- 
cerning New-England, I am advised to let it sleep, and 
forbear public contests with Protestants, since it is the 
design of hell and Rome to cut the throats of all the pro- 
testors in the world. Yet I am occasioned, in this book, 
to say much for the honor and peace of New-England. 



354 MEMOIR OF 

^' Sir, I shall humbly wait for your advice where it may 
be best printed, at Boston or Cambridge, and for how 
much, the printer finding paper. We have tidings here of 
Shaftsbury's and Howard's beheading, and contrarily, their 
release, London manifestations of joy, and the King's call- 
ing a Parliament, But all these are but sublunaries, tem- 
poraries and trivials. Eternity (O eternity !) is our business, 
to which end I am most unworthy to be 

" Your willing and faithful servant, 

'' ROGER WILLIAMS. 

" My humble respects to Mrs. Bradstreet, and other hon- 
ored friends." 

The foregoing letter furnishes proof, that Mr. Williams, 
even after Philip's war, and consequently after he had 
passed his 77th year, went to Narraganset, and delivered 
discourses. His zeal for the salvation of men was not ex- 
tinguished by his age, nor was he prevented from efforts to 
save them, by his theory respecting the ministry. That 
zeal is displayed in his desire to print these discourses, 
after disease confined him to his home. The letter, too, 
leads us to infer his poverty. He would not, probably, have 
solicited aid to print so small a work, if he had possessed the 
means. His son's letter, quoted in a preceding page,* in- 
timates, that Mr. Williams was dependent on his children, 
to some extent, at least, during the last years of his life. 
Poverty was honorable in a man, who had spent his best 
days in the public service, and who had been more in- 
tent on making others happy, than on the promotion of his 
own private interests. 

Of the immediate cause and exact time of Mr. Williams' 
death, we are not informed. It is certain, however, that 
he died, at some time between January 16, 1682-3, and 
May 10, 1683. On the former day, he signed a document 
which was intended as a settlement of the controversy re- 
specting the Pawtuxet lands. On the 10th of May, Mr. 
John Thornton wrote to the Rev. Samuel Hubbard, from 
Providence : '' The Lord hath arrested by death our ancient 
and approved friend, Mr. Roger Williams, with divers 
others here."t He was in the 84th year of his age. It 

* Page 110. f Backus, vol. i. p. 515. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 355 

would be gratifying to have some account of his last hours, 
but we have every reason to believe, that his end was peace. 
He '' was buried," says Mr. Callender (p. 93,) " with ail the 
solemnity the colony was able to show." His remains were 
deposited, in his own family burying-ground, on his town- 
lot, a short distance only from the place where he landed, 
and from the spot where his dwelling-house stood. His 
wife probably survived him,* and all his children, it is be- 
lieved, were living at his death. t 

Thus terminated the long and active life of the founder 
of Rhode-Island, fifty-two years of which elapsed, after his 
arrival in America. It now remains, to present a summary 
view of his writings, and some comments on his character. 

* She was certainly alive in November, 1679. — Backus, vol. i. p. 
478. 

t See Appendix H. for some account of his grave, and of his 
family. 



356 MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Mr. Williams' writings — Key — Bloody Tenet — liberty of conscience 
— Mr. Cotton's Reply — Mr. Williams' Rejoinder. 

Our examination of the writings of Mr. Williams must 
be brief. Sufficient specimens of his style have been given 
in the preceding pages. We shall, therefore, present no 
extracts from his books, except such as may be necessary 
to explain their character, or to illustrate his principles. 

His first printed book was his Key. The title page is 
in these words : " A Key into the Language of America, 
or a Help to the Language of the Natives, in that part of 
America called New-England ; together with brief Obser- 
vations of the Customs, Manners and Worships, &.c. of the 
aforesaid Natives, in Peace and War, in Life and Death. 
On all which are added. Spiritual Observations, general 
and particular, by the Author, of chief and special use 
(upon all occasions) to all the English inhabiting those 
Parts ; yet pleasant and profitable to the View of all Men. 
By Roger Williams, of Providence, in New-England. Lon- 
don. Printed by Gregory Dexter, 1643." 

It was dedicated " to my dear and well-beloved friends 
and countrymen in Old and New-England." In this dedi- 
cation, he says, " This Key respects the native language of 
it, and happily may unlock some rarities concerning the 
natives themselves, not yet discovered. A little key may 
open a box, where lies a bunch of keys." He professes 
his hope, that his book may contribute to the spread of 
Christianity among the natives, " being comfortably per- 
suaded, that that Father of spirits, who was graciously 
pleased to persuade Japhet (the Gentile) to dwell in the 
tents of Shem (the Jews) will, in his holy season, (I hope 
approaching) persuade these Gentiles of America to par- 
take of the mercies of Europe ; and then shall be fulfilled 
what is written by the prophet Malachi, from the rising of 
the sun (in Europe) to the going down of the same (in 
America) my name shall be great among the Gentiles." 

The book is divided into thirty-two chapters, the title* 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 357 

of which are, Of Sahitation. Of Eating and Entertainment. 
Of Sleep. Of their Numbers. Of Relations and Consan- 
guinity, &c. Of Houses, Family, &c. Of Parts of Body. 
Of Discourse and News. Of Time of Day. Of Seasons of 
the Year. Of Travel. Of the Heavenly Lights. Of the 
Weather. Of the Winds. Of Fowl. Of the Earth and 
Fruits thereof. Of Beasts and Cattle. Of the Sea. Of Fish 
and Fishinor. Of their Nakedness and Clothincr. Of their 
Religion, Soul, &.c. Of their Government. Of their Mar- 
riages. Of their Coin. Of their Trading. Of their Debts 
and Trusting. Of their Hunting. Of their Sports and 
Gaming. Of their Wars, Of their Paintings. Of their Sick- 
ness. Of their Death and Burial. 

The work is ingeniously constructed in such a manner, 
as to present a vocabulary of Indian words, with their sig- 
nifications, while valuable information is given concerning 
the various topics enumerated in the titles of the chapters. 
Appended to each chapter are some pious reflections, and 
a few lines of rude poetry. 

An extract from the twenty-first chapter, " Of Religion, 
the Soul, &c." will furnish a specimen of the work. 

" Manit Manittowock, God, Gods. 

" Obs. He that questions whether God maue the world, 
the Indians will teach him. I must acknowledge, I have 
received, in my converse with them, many confirmations of 
those two great points, Heb. 11:6. viz : 

*' 1. That God is. 

" 2. That he is a rewarder of all them that diligently 
seek him. 

" They will generally confess that God made all ; but 
then, in special, although they deny not that Englishman's 
God made English men, and the heavens and earth there ; 
yet their Gods made them, and the heaven and the earth 
where they dwell. 

" Nummus quauna-muckqun manit. God is angry with 
me. 

" Obs. I heard a poor Indian lamenting the loss of a 
child, at break of day, call up his wife and children, and 
all about him, to lamentation, and with abundance of tears, 
cry out, O, God, thou hast taken away my child ! thou art 

81 



358 MEMOIR OF 

angry with me : O, turn thine anger from me, and spare 
the rest of my children. 

" If they receive any good in hunting, fishing, harvest, 
&/C. they acknowledge God in it. 

" Yea, if it be but an ordinary accident, a fall, &c. they 
will say, God was angry and did it. 
" Musquantum manit. God is angry. 
*' But herein is their misery : 

" First. They branch their godhead into many gods. 
*' Secondly. Attribute it to creatures. 
" First. Many gods : they have given me the names of 
thirty-seven, which I have, all which, in their solemn wor- 
ships, they invocate : as, 

" Kautantowwit. The great south-west god, to whose 
house all souls go, and from whom came their corn and 
beans, as they say. 

Wompanand. The eastern god. 

Chekesuwand. The western god. 

Wunnanameanit. The northern god. 

Sowwanand. The southern god. 

Wetuomanit. The house god. 

" Even as the papists have their he and she saint pro- 
tectors, as St. George, St. Patrick, St. Dennis, Virgin Mary, 

&/C. 

Squauanit. The woman's god. 

Muckquachuckquand. The children's god. 
^' Secondly. As they have many of these feigned deities, 
so worship they the creatures in whom they conceive doth 
rest some deity : 

Keesuckquand. The sun god. 

Nanepaushat. The moon god. 

Paumpagussit. The sea. 

Yotaanit. The fire god. 

" Supposing that deities be in these, &c." 

'^The general Observation of Religion, ^v. 

" The wandering generations of Adam's lost posterity, 
having lost the true and living God, their Maker, have 
created, out of the nothing of their own inventions^ many 
false and feigned gods and creators. 

" More particular, 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 359 

*'Two sorts of men shall naked stand, 

Before the burning ire 
Of him, that shortly shall appear, 

In dreadful flaming fire. 
First, millions know not God, nor for 

His knowledge care to seek ; 
Millions have knowledge store, but, in 

Obedience, are not meek. 
If woe to Indians, where shall Turk, 

Where shall appear the Jew .'' 
O, where shall stand the Christian false.' 

O, blessed then the true." 

The work displays genius, industry and benevolence. It 
was very valuable when it was written, and it is still one 
of the best works on the subject. It breathes, throughout, 
a spirit of piety, and it closes in the following devout 
strain : 

" Now, to the Most High and Most Holy, Immortal, In- 
visible, and only wise God, who alone is Alpha and Omega, 
the beginning and the ending, the first and the last, who 
was, and is, and is to come ; from whom, by whom, and to 
whom are all things ; by whose gracious assistance and 
wonderful supportment in so many varieties of hardship 
and outward miseries, I have had such converse with bar- 
barous nations, and have been mercifully assisted, to frame 
this poor Key, which may (through his blessing, in his own 
holy season,) open a door, yea, doors of unknown mercies 
to us and them, be honor, glory, power, riches, wisdom, 
goodness and dominion ascribed by all his in Jesus Christ 
to eternity. Amen." 

Of the original edition, the copy in the library of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society is probably the only one 
in this country. In the third and fifth volumes of the So- 
ciety's Collections, first series, a large part of the work 
was republished. The first volume of the Collections of 
the Rhode-Island Historical Society contains a handsome 
edition of the Key, with a well written preface, and a brief 
memoir of the author. 

His next publication was entitled " The Bloody Tenet 
of Persecution, for Cause of Conscience, discussed, in a 
Conference between Truth and Peace, who, in all tender 
affection, present to the High Court of Parliament (as the 



360 MEMOIR OF 

result of their Discourse) these, (amongst other passages) 
of highest consideration. Printed in the year 1644." It 
was published without the name of the author. 

The origin of this work was this : A person, who was 
confined in Newgate, on account of his religious opinions, 
wrote a paper against persecution. " Having not the use 
of pen and ink, he wrote these arguments in milk, in sheets 
of paper, brought to him by the woman, his keeper, from a 
friend in London, as the stopples of his milk bottle. In 
such paper, written with milk, nothing will appear ; but 
the way of reading it by fire being known to this friend, 
who received the papers, he transcribed and kept together 
the papers." * 

This essay was sent to Mr. Cotton, of Boston. He 
wrote a reply, of which Mr. Williams' book is an examina- 
tion. Its title, " The Bloody Tenet," is a fanciful refer- 
ence to the circumstance, that the original paper of the 
prisoner was written with milk. " These arguments against 
such persecution, and the answer pleading for it, written 
(as love hopes) from godly intentions, hearts and hands, yet 
in a marvellous different style and manner — the arguments 
against persecution in ?nilk, the answer for it (as I may say) 
in blood." 

The book is dedicated " To the Right Honorable, both 
Houses of the High Court of Parliament." After an ad- 
dress '' To every courteous reader," and a minute table of 
contents, the essay of the prisoner and Mr. Cotton's reply 
are inserted. Then follows the main work, divided into 
one hundred and thirty-eight short chapters, eighty-one of 
which are employed in discussing Mr. Cotton's reply, and 
the remainder in examining *' A Model of Church and 
Civil Power, composed by Mr. Cotton and the Ministers of 
New-England, and sent to the Church at Salem, as a fur- 
ther Confirmation of the Bloody Doctrine of Persecution 
for Cause of Conscience." The whole work forms a small 
quarto, of two hundred and forty-seven pages. A few 
copies exist, in the large libraries in this country.! It 



* Bloody Tenet, p. 18. 

t The copy now before me belongs to the library of Harvard Col- 
lege, having been borrowed in accordance with the very liberal reg- 
ulations of that noble collection of books. This copy was presented 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 361 

ought to be reprinted, and it is hoped that the Rhode- 
Island Historical Society will make it one of the volumes 
of their Collections. It is the best work of its author, and 
it contains a full exhibition of his principles. Its style is 
animated, and often beautiful.* It is in the form of a dia- 
logue between Truth and Peace, and the colloquy is sus- 
tained with great skill. It commences thus : 

" Truth. In what dark corner of the world (sweet 
Peace) are we two met? How hath this present evil world 
banished me from all the coasts and quarters of it, and how 
hath the righteous God in judgment taken thee from the 
earth ? Rev. 6 : 4. 

" Peace. ' Tis lamentably true, (blessed Truth) the foun- 
dations of the world have long been out of course. The 
gates of earth and hell have conspired together to intercept 
our joyful meeting, and our holy kisses. With what a 
weary, tired wing, have I flown over nations, kingdoms, 
cities, towns, to find out precious Truth. 

" Truth. The like inquiries, in my flights and travels, 
have I made for Peace, and still am told, she hath left the 
earth and fled to heaven. 

*' Peace. Dear Truth, what is the earth but a dungeon 
of darkness, where Truth is not?" 

An analysis of this book would occupy too much space. 
The author himself presents a summary view of its contents 
in the introduction : 

''First. That the blood ofso many hundred thousand souls 
of protestants and papists, spilt in the wars of present and 



by the second Thomas Hollis, and it contains, on the title page, in 
his hand- writing", I presume, the words, ^^ A curious tract.'' It is 
pleasant to connect the names of Williams and Hollis. 

* It was prepared under great disadvantages. Pie says : " When 
these discussions were prepared for the public, in London, his time 
was eaten up in attendance upon the service of the Parliament and 
city, for the supply of the poor of the city with wood, (during the 
stop of the coal from Newcastle, and the mutinies of the poor for 
firing.) These meditations were fitted for public view in change of 
rooms and corners, yea, sometimes (upon occasions of travel in the 
country, concerning that business of fuel,) in variety of strange 
houses, sometimes in the fields, in the midst of travel, where he hath 
been forced to gather and scatter his loose thoughts and papers," 
Bloody Tenet made More Bloody, p. 38. 

31* 



362 MEMOIR OF 

former ages, for their respective consciences, is not required 
nor accepted by Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace. 

" Secondly. Pregnant Scriptures and arguments are 
throughout the work proposed against the doctrine of per- 
secution for cause of conscience. 

" Thirdly. Satisfactory answers are given to Scriptures, 
and objections produced by Mr. Calvin, Beza, Mr. Cotton, 
and the ministers of the New English churches, and others 
former and later, tending to prove the doctrine of persecu- 
tion for cause of conscience. 

" Fourthly. The doctrine of persecution for cause of 
conscience, is proved guilty of all the blood of the souls 
crying for vengeance under the altar. 

** Fifthly. All civil states, with their officers of justice, in 
the irrespective constitutions and administrations, are proved 
essentially civil, and therefore not judges, governors, or 
defenders of the spiritual or christian state and worship. 

" Sixthly. It is the will and command of God, that since 
the coming of his Son, the Lord Jesus, a permission of the 
most Paganish, Jewish, Turkish or Antichristian con- 
sciences and worships, be granted to all men in all nations 
and countries : and they are to be fought against with that 
sword, which is only in soul matters able to conquer, to 
wit, the sword of God's Spirit, the word of God. 

" Seventhly. The state of the land of Israel, the kings 
and people thereof, in peace and war, is proved figurative 
and ceremonial, and no pattern nor precedent for any king- 
dom or civil state in the world to follow. 

" Eighthly. God requireth not a uniformity of religion 
to be enacted or enforced in any civil state ; which enforc- 
ed uniformity sooner or later is the greatest occasion of 
civil war, ravishing of conscience, persecution of Christ 
Jesus in his servants, and of the hypocrisy and destruction 
of millions of souls. 

" Ninthly. In holding an enforced uniformity of reli- 
gion in a civil state, we must necessarily disclaim our de- 
sires and hopes of the Jews' conversion to Christ. 

** Tenthly. An enforced uniformity of religion throughout 
a nation or civil state, confounds the civil and religious, 
denies the principles of Christianity and civility, and that 
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. 

*' Eleventhly. The permission of other consciences and 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 363 

worships, than a state professeth, only can according to 
God procure a firm and lasting peace, good assurance 
being taken according to the wisdom of the civil state for 
uniformity of civil obedience from all sorts. 

" Twelfthly. Lastly, true civility and Christianity may 
both flourish in a state or kingdom, notwithstanding the 
permission of divers and contrary consciences, either of 
Jews or Gentiles." 

Without examining the numerous arguments and texts, 
with which Mr. Williams fortifies his doctrine, we will 
briefly state the general principles of liberty of conscience. 

All men are bound by the laws of God, and are respon- 
sible to Him for their conduct. He requires them to love, 
worship and obey Him. From this duty, they cannot be 
released. The conscience cannot be freed from this obli- 
gation. God has not granted any liberty to disobey His 
commands. 

As God is the Supreme Ruler, He may prescribe the 
modes in which He chooses to be worshipped, and may 
enforce conformity by temporal penalties. This he did 
in the Jewish commonwealth. He established a system of 
rites, and armed the magistrate with power to coerce the 
consciences of the Jews. The civil sword was rightly used 
to maintain the national religion, because the magistrate 
acted in the name and by the authority of Jehovah. The 
destruction of several heathen nations, by the Jews, was 
just, because God commanded the act. He uses what in- 
struments he pleases to punish men, and the chastisement 
was deserved, whether it was inflicted by the Jewish 
sword, or by famine or pestilence. 

But since the introduction of the christian system, the 
case is altered. The obligation to love God and obey the 
Gospel, binds the conscience of every man; but he is re- 
sponsible to God alone. His fellow men have no right to 
interfere. God has not delegated to any man this authority 
over the conscience. 

All human laws, therefore, which either prescribe or 
prohibit certain doctrines or rites, that are not inconsis- 
tent with the civil peace, are unjust, and are an invasion 
of the prerogatives of God. They are consequently null 
and void, and no man is bound to obey them. The reasons 
are obvious : 



364 MEMOIR OF 

Such laws are incongistent with the spirit and letter of 
the New Testament. The Saviour gave no intimation to 
his ministers, that force should be employed in the diffu- 
sion of his Gospel. He appointed, on the contrary, the 
preaching of the truth, an appeal to the understandings and 
hearts of men, as the means by which his kingdom was 
to be established. His apostles accordingly went abroad 
among the nations, proclaiming the Gospel, and by moral 
suasion, endeavoring to bring men to the obedience of 
faith. They represented themselves to be ambassadors, 
commissioned to declare the will of their Sovereign, but 
not authorized to employ force. " We are ambassadors 
for Christ ; as though God did beseech you by us, we pray 
you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." " Know- 
ing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men."* 
The great commission of the ministers of the Gospel is, 
" Go ye into all the world, ^nd preach the Gospel to every 
creature ; he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, 
but he that believeth not shall be damned. "f The only 
legitimate means, therefore, of operating on the wills of 
men, in reference to religion, are the affecting truths, the 
precious promises, and the terrific threatenings of the word 
of God. These are to be presented to the minds and hearts 
of men, with solemnity and urgent affection ; but here the 
agency of man ceases. If men choose to disobey the Gos- 
pel, they do it on their responsibility to God, who will bring 
them into judgment for the deeds done in the body. 

The early believers acted on this principle ; and after 
Christians obtained possession of the civil power, the em- 
ployment of force to constrain the conscience was not in- 
troduced, till the purity of Christianity became corrupted 
by her alliance with the state. | The remark of Tertullian,§ 
expresses the feelings of the early Christians: "It is the 
natural civil right of every man to worship whatever he 
pleases. It is inconsistent with the nature of religion to 
propagate it by force, for it must be received by voluntary 
consent, not by coercion." 

" 2 Cor. 5 : 11 , 20. t Mark, 16 : 16. 

t Bishop Taylor's Liberty of Prophesying, sec. 14. 

§ '' Humani juris et naturalis potestatis, unicuique quod putaverit 
colere. Sed nee religionis est cogere religionem. quse suscipi sponte 
debet, non vi." 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 365 

This remark suggests another argument. Religion es- 
sentially consists in love to God. Its seat is the soul. 
External acts of worship are merely manifestations of this 
inward principle, and derive from it all their value. When 
they do not spring from it, they are not acceptable to God. 
The principle may exist, in vigor and purity, without any 
external expressions; and much of the intercourse of every 
Christian with God consists in this silent communion of 
his soul with the great Invisible. But, from the nature of 
man, he needs external modes of manifesting his feelings, 
in order to preserve those feelings in healthful action. 
God accordingly requires worship, and obedience to certain 
rites. The social principle is brought into action, and 
individual Christians increase their own strength, by union 
with their fellow Christians in acts of devotion. 

But when force is employed, to constrain men to the 
performance of religious duties, the end proposed is not 
attained. Men may be made to assume attitudes, and to 
repeat words, and to visit certain places ; but they cannot 
be forced, by human power, to love God. They cannot 
thus be made religious. The soul is not subject to human 
constraint. Men cannot penetrate the interior sanctuary, 
where she resides, in the awful presence of God alone. It 
is absurd, therefore, to attempt to accomplish, by human 
laws, what they are incompetent, from their nature, to 
effect. No legislator ever enacted a law, requiring the cit- 
izens to love the state. The law provides for the punish- 
ment of actions inconsistent with this love ; but beyond 
the external manifestations of the inward feelings, it does 
not attempt to extend its jurisdiction. Laws requiring 
men to perform religious duties are vain, as well as unjust. 
They attempt an impossibility, because the duty is not per- 
formed, unless it springs from love to God ; which love no 
human power can create in the soul. 

But such laws are unjust, because God has given to men 
no power over the conscience, and because men cannot 
grant this power to each other. Civil society is necessary 
to the happiness of men, and a sufficient amount of power 
must be confided to the hands of rulers, for the protection 
of society. But the degree of this delegated authority is 
limited by its objects. The regulation of the conscience 
is not one of the purposes for which men combine in civil 



366 MEMOIR OF 

society. The object of such a society is the promotion of 
civil interests. Those interests must be guarded and pro- 
moted. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness must be 
secured to every citizen. When these ends are attained, 
government has fulfilled its purpose. It has no power to 
dictate to the citizen, in what mode he shall pursue happi- 
ness. It cannot interfere with his domestic or social rela- 
tions, unless the public welfare is injured. It cannot, above 
all, intrude into the hallowed asylum, where the religious 
affections reign. It is inconsistent with the theory of the 
social compact, to suppose, that men have surrendered to 
the state the right to control their faith, — a surrender which 
is not necessary to the ends for which men unite in politi- 
cal communities. 

But if men were willing to yield this right, they could 
not do it. God holds every man personally responsible. 
Every individual must stand at the judgment seat of Christ, 
and give an account of his own actions. No man, there- 
fore, can surrender to another the control over his con- 
science. His soul is committed to his own responsibility, 
and of him God will require it. He must not commit him- 
self implicitly to the control or guidance of any man ; but, 
seeking for light from Heaven, he must strive for the per- 
fection of his moral nature, and for a preparation for the 
eternal life beyond the grave. 

The absurdity of permitting the civil magistrate to reg- 
ulate the conscience, is shown by the fact, that the ma- 
gistrate will make his own views the standard of ortho- 
doxy ; and, consequently, it has happened, that successive 
rulers have maintained, by force, totally opposite sys- 
tems of faith and practice. Mr. Williams says, on this 
point, " Who knows not, that within the compass of one 
poor span of twelve years' revolution, all England hath be- 
come from half Papist, half Protestant, to be absolute 
Protestants ; from absolute Protestants to be absolute Pa- 
pists ; from absolute Papists, (changing as fashions) to ab- 
solute Protestants."* 

The magistrate must be infallible, in order to be a safe 
guide to the consciences of men. This consideration is a 
sufficient answer to Mr. Cotton's sophism, that a man must 

* Bloody Tenet, p. 185. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 367 

not be persecuted for his opinions, but he may be punished 
for acting in contradiction to his own conscience. But 
who is to be the judge 1 Fundamentals, says Mr. Cotton, 
are so clear, that a man must be criminally blind and ob- 
stinate, who does not receive and obey them. But what 
are these fundamentals ? is a question which different 
magistrates will decide differently ; and men may be suc- 
cessively rewarded and punished, by successive administra- 
tions, for the same opinions. 

The great and true principle, then, is, that men are not 
responsible to each other, for their religious opinions or 
practices, as such ; and that every man has a right, as a 
citizen, to hold any opinions, and to practise any ceremo- 
nies, which he pleases, unless he disturbs the civd peace. 
The duty of the magistrate, in relation to religion, consists 
in personal obedience to the truth, and impartial protec- 
tion to all the citizens in the exercise of their religious 
privileges. Mr. Williams has well stated this point. In 
answer to the question, " What may the magistrate law- 
fully do with his civil power in matters of religion ?" he 
says : 

" The civil magistrate either respecteth that religion and 
worship, which his conscience is persuaded is true and 
upon which he ventures his soul ; or else, that and those 
which he is persuaded are false. Concerning the first, if 
that which the magistrate believeth to be true, be true, I say- 
he owes a three-fold duty to it. 

" First, approbation and countenance, a reverent esteem 
and honorable testimony (according to Isaiah 49, and 
Rev. 31) with a tender respect of truth, and of the pro- 
fessors of it. 

" Secondly, personal submission of his own soul to the 
power of the Lord Jesus, in that spiritual government and 
kingdom, according to Matt. 18, and 1 Cor. 5. 

" Thirdly, protection of such true professors of Christ, 
whether apart, or met together, as also of their estates, 
from violence or injury, according to Rom. 13. 

" Now, secondly, if it be a false religion (unto which the 
civil magistrate dare not adjoin,) yet he owes : 

"First, jJcrmissioji (for approhatiori he owes not to what 
is evil) and thus according to Matthew 13 : 30, for public 
peace and quiet sake. 



368 MEMOIR OF 

" Secondly, he owes protection to the persons of his sub- 
jects (though of a false worship) that no injury be offered 
either to the persons or goods of any. Rom. 13."* 

It follows, from this last position, that no man can be 
lawfully compelled to support a system of worship which he 
disapproves ; for this is, in effect, to tax and punish him for 
his religious opinions. 

The duty of the magistrate is thus very clear. With 

the religious opinions or practices of the citizens, he has no 

concern. They are not civil matters, which, alone, come 

within his cocrnizance. If a man's relio-ious views lead 

... . . 

him to actions which injure society, those actions become 

civil offences, and are within the jurisdiction of the magis- 
trate, who is appointed to guard the interests of the civil 
community. If a company of Hindoos should remove to 
Boston, and should erect a temple to Juggernaut, they 
ought to be protected in their worship, if they confined them- 
selves to such acts, as made no disturbance, and violated 
no civil law. If, however, they should attempt to drag the 
idol through the streets, the magistrates ought to interfere. 
If they should sacrifice one of their children, the perpetra- 
tors ought to be tried and punished for murder. If a man 
violates the third commandment, in such a way as to dis- 
turb the community, he may be punished, though experi- 
ence has proved, that it is not wise to enforce laws against 
blasphemy. If a man breaks the fourth commandment, by 
actions which interrupt or disturb the devotions of others, 
the law may restrain and punish him, not for the breach of 
the commandment, but for interfering with the religious 
privileges of other citizens. If a man chose to labor on 
the Sabbath, on his farm or in his shop, the law could not 
rightfully interfere ; but if by his labor he disturbed the de- 
votions of his neighbors, he might be restrained ; though, 
here, too, experience proves, that the interference of the 
law is odious, and seldom beneficial. 

Such cases as those specified present no difiiculty. 
There is a broad, clear line, running between religious 
opinions and actions. The actions, and not the opinions, 
are the subjects of law. If it is alleged, that the opinions 
necessarily lead to illegal conduct, the reply is, wait till 

* Bloody Tenet, p. 214. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 369 

the actions are attempted or performed. They, then, 
come within the cognizance of civil law. If, indeed, a 
case could be supposed to happen, in which a relio-ious 
sect avowed it as their creed, that they were required, or 
permitted, to murder their fellow-citizens, or burn their 
dwellings, the magistrates would be bound to take the ne- 
cessary precautions to prevent such results. In such a 
case, the creed would involve a criminal design, against 
which the community would have a right to guard itself; 
but the mere design could not be punished ; just as a pur- 
pose to commit murder cannot be punished, though it jus- 
tifies the magistrate in taking measures to prevent its exe- 
cution. 

Liberty of conscience, however, has some limitations. 
It does not prohibit churches from excluding members 
whose opinions or conduct are inconsistent with the prin- 
ciples on which the church is founded. The Bible makes 
it the duty of churches to maintain suitable discipline. A 
church is a voluntary society, founded on certain funda- 
mental rules, to which every member assents, when he en- 
ters it. If he adopts other principles, or in any way vio- 
lates the rules, he makes himself liable to expulsion from 
the church, as from any other voluntary association. 

Neither does liberty of conscience imply, that a man 
has a claim to our confidence, our patronage, our votes, 
whatever may be his religious opinions. I would not in- 
trust my children to the care of an infidel, but I do not 
deprive him, by such refusal, of any right ; yet a lav/ for- 
bidding infidels to be employed as instructors, would be un- 
just. I would not vote for a man holding certain princi- 
ples, but I do not thereby invade his privileges, for he 
has no title to my vote ; yet a law, making men ineligible 
to office, on account of certain opinions, would be an in- 
vasion of their civil rights.* Every man must bear the 



* The laws, in some of our States, which make clergymen ineligi- 
ble to certain civil offices, are unjust, and inconsistent v\^ith our re- 
publican institutions. Every man has equal civil rights, and the ex- 
clusion of any class of men from the enjoyment of any of those 
rights, is an odious proscription. It is, indeed, desirable, that no 
clergyman should accept a civil office, because his duties as a minis- 
ter of the Gospel ought to be sufficient to occupy his mind. But he 
has a right, as a citizen, to be elected to any office ; and to exclude 



370 MEMOIR OF 

responsibility of his principles. Those principles cannot 
impair his positive rights ; but they may, and will, affect 
the opinions and feelings of his fellow men. To their con- 
fidence, their patronage, or their votes, he has no natural 
right, and no civil injustice is done to him, if these are 
withheld. 

We cannot prolong our remarks on this subject. It is 
expounded and illustrated, with much ability, learning and 
eloquence, in the " Bloody Tenet." Roger Williams is 
entitled to the honor of being the first writer, in modern 
times, who clearly maintained the absolute right of every 
man, to a " full liberty in religious concernments." Bishop 
Heber, in his Life of Jeremy Taylor, says, of the " Liberty 
of Prophesying," " It is the first attempt on record, to con- 
ciliate the minds of Christians to the reception of a doc- 
trine, which, though now the rule of action professed by 
all Christian sects, was then, by every sect alike, regarded 
as a perilous and portentous novelty."* 

Bishop Heber has here fallen into a mistake. The 
*' Liberty of Prophesying" was published in 1647, three 
years after the " Bloody Tenet," in which the principles of 
religious liberty are more clearly and consistently main- 
tained, than in Taylor's excellent work.f Bishop Heber 
admits (p. 2'22) that this essay " can by no means lay claim 
to the character which has been assigned to it, of a plea 
for universal toleration. The forbearance which he claims, 
h& claims for those Christians only, wlw unite in the con- 
fession of the Apostles^ creed." Bishop Taylor himself, at 
the end of the sixteenth section of the work referred to, 
says, that "opinions are to be dealt with," if they tend to 
disturb the public peace, and lead to vice. "If either 
themselves or their doctrine do really and without color or 

liiiii is an assumption of the poAver to establish a national religion, 
for if a man may be excluded from office, because he is a minister, 
lie may, by the same authority, be invested with office, because he 
is a minister. It is remarkable, that those who clamor so loudly 
against church and state, do not see any inconsistency in the exclu- 
sion of clergymen, as such, from office. 
*Life of Jeremy Taylor, Am. ed. p. 37. 

t Mr. Williams speaks of this work, in his rejoinder to Mr. Cotton's 
reply : ^' Dr. J. Taylor, what an everlasting monumental testimony 
did he publish to this truth, in that his excellent discourse of the 
Liberty of Prophesying." pp. 31G-17. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 371 

feigned pretence, disturb the public peace, and just inter- 
ests, they are not to be suffered." But the magistrate must 
judge, in this case ; and, of course, the door is left wide 
open, for persecution. Roger Williams, on the contrary, 
contended, that " a permission of the most Paganish, 
Jewish, Turkish or Antichristian consciences and wor- 
ships, be granted to all men in all nations and countries ;" 
and he left no discretion to the magistrate to judge of 
opinions, any further than they should exhibit their effects 
in action. His principles, too, claimed for men entire lib- 
erty of conscience, and not merely a right to toleration. To 
tolerate implies the power to interfere, and to regulate the 
conscience. If there is power to pej-mit, there is power to 
forbid. 

The great Mr. Locke advocated the principles of reli- 
gious liberty with distinguished ability, in his Letters con- 
cerning Toleration, written about the year 1690 ; but he 
maintained, by implication, that Papists ought not to be 
tolerated, and expressly asserted that atheists must not re- 
ceive toleration.* 

We may here take notice of an attempt to deprive Roger 
Williams and his colony of their just praise, by claiming 
for Lord Baltimore the priority in establishing religious lib- 
erty in Maryland. We would not detract from the merit 
of Lord Baltimore and his colony ; but the liberty estab- 
lished in Maryland, though far beyond the spirit of thos^^e 
times, did not rise to the Rhode-Island standard. It ex- 
tended only to Christians.! Lord Baltimore commenced 

* Works, vol. X. pp. 45-7, 

t In 1649, the Assembly of Maryland enacted, " that no persons 
professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall be molested, in respect of 
their religion, or in the free exercise thereof, or be compelled to the 
belief or practice of any other religion, against their consent, so that 
they be not unfaithful to the proprietary, or conspire against the civil 
government. That persons molesting any other in respect of his 
religious tenets shall pay treble damages to the party aggrieved, and 
twenty shillings to the proprietary. That the reproaching any with 
opprobrious epithets of religious distinctions, shall forfeit ten shil- 
lings to the persons aggrieved. That any one speaking reproachfully 
against the Blessed Virgin, ox the Apostles, shall forfeit five pounds, 
but blasphemy against God shall be punished with death." Chal- 
mers' Pol. Ann. vol. i. p. 218. These latter provisions might easily 
be made terrible engines of persecution, in the hands of ill-disposed 
magistrates. 



372 MEMOIR OF 

his settlement in 1634, and established Christianity, agree- 
ably to the old common law, without allowing pre-eminence 
to any particular sect. This was wise and liberal ; but 
Mr. Williams established his colony in 1636, two years 
afterwards, on the broad principle of unlimited religious 
freedom; and the Jew, the Mahometan or the Hindoo 
might have found a home in Rhode-Island, and might 
have enjoyed his opinions unmolested, while he fulfilled his 
civil duties. The first law of Maryland, respecting reli- 
gious liberty, was enacted in 1649. In 1647, at the first 
General Assembly held in Rhode-Island, under the first 
charter, a code of laws was adopted, relating exclusively 
to civil concerns, and concluding with these words : " Oth- 
erwise than thus, what is herein forbidden, all men may 
walk as their consciences persuade them, every one in the 
name of his God. And let the Icwibs of the Most High 
walk in this colony without molestation, in the name of 
Jehovah their God, forever and ever.''* This noble pro- 
vision was a part of the code ; and it was not only prior in 
date to the law of Maryland, but it was more liberal, and 
more consistent with the rights of conscience. 

We must now return to Mr. Williams' book. A reply 
was written by Mr. Cotton, and published in London, in 
1647. Its title was : '' The Bloody Tenet washed, and 
made white, in the Blood of the Lamb, being discussed 
and discharged of Blood-Guiltiness, by just Defence. 
Wherein the great Questions of this Time are handled, 
viz. How far Liberty of Conscience ought to be given to 
those that truly fear God, and how far restraint to turbulent 
and pestilent Persons, that not only rase the Foundation of 
Godliness, but disturb the civil Peace, where they live. 
Also, how far the Magistrates may proceed in the Duties 
of the first Table. And that all Magistrates ought to study 
the Word and Will of God, that they may frame their Gov- 
ernment according to it. Discussed, as they are alleged, 
from divers Scriptures, out of the Old and New Testa- 
ments. Wherein also the Practice of Princes is debated, 
together with the Judgment of ancient and late Writers, 
of most precious Esteem. Whereunto is added, a Reply 
to Mr. Williams' Answer to Mr. Cotton's Letter. By John 

*2 Mass. His. Col. viii. p. 79. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 373 

Cotton, Bachelor in Divinity, and Teacher of the Church 
of Christ, at Boston, in New-England. London, printed 
by Matthew Symmons, for Hannah Allen, at the Crown, 
in Pope's-Head Alley. 1G47." The book is a small 
quarto, of 339 pages. It is able and learned, but it main- 
tains the right of the magistrate to interfere, for the promo- 
tion of truth, and the suppression of error. 

Mr. Williams again took up his pen, and published a re- 
joinder, entitled, " The Bloody Tenet yet more Bloody, by 
Mr. Cotton's Endeavor to wash it white in the Blood of the 
Lamb. Of whose precious Blood, spilt in the Blood of his 
Servants, and of the Blood of Millions spilt in former and 
later Wars for Conscience Sake, that most bloody Tenet 
of Persecution for Cause of Conscience, upon a second 
Trial, is found now more apparently and more notoriously 
guilty. In this Rejoinder to Mr. Cotton, are principally, 
I. The Nature of Persecution. II. The Power of the 
civil Sword in Spirituals, examined. III. The Parlia- 
ment's Permission of Dissenting Consciences justified. 
Also, (as a Testimony to Mr. Clarke's Narrative) is added, 
a Letter to Mr. Endicott, Governor of the Massachusetts, 
in New-England. By R. Williams, of Provic!-ence,in New- 
England. London, printed for Giles Calvert, and are to be 
sold at the Black-Spread-Eagle, at the West End of Paul's, 
1652." It is a small quarto, of 30:2 pages.* 

This book discusses the same topics, as its predecessor, 
with additional arguments. Though the controversy was 
maintained with spirit, yet the tone of the book is courte- 
ous. Mr. Williams says : " The Most Holy and All-Seeing 
knows, how bitterly I resent [lament] the least difference 
with Mr. Cotton, yea with the least of the followers of Jesus, 
of what conscience or worship soever." He calls his book, 
"An Examination of the worthily honored and beloved Mr. 
Cotton's Reply." It would be well if all disputants cher- 
ished the same kind spirit. 

The book contains an '* Address to the High Court of 
Parliament," in which the author prays them to favor toler- 
ation, and to secure their personal salvation. 



* There is a thin book, in the Library of Harvard College, which 
purports to be a copy of this work, but it contains only the Preface 
and Dedicatory ^Epistles. 

32* 



374 MEMOIR OF 

There are also two addresses, the one " to the several 
respective General Courts, especially that of the Massachu- 
setts, in New-England," and the other "To the Merciful 
and Compassionate Reader." 

The body of the work is written, like the Bloody Tenet, 
in the form of a "Conference between Truth and Peace," 
and is divided into chapters, in each of which, for the most 
part, a corresponding chapter of Mr. Cotton's book is ex- 
amined. 

At the close of the examination, is a letter to Governor 
Endicott, of Massachusetts, in which Mr. Williams ex- 
presses great affection for him, alludes to former days, and 
exhibitions of a different spirit, intimates that the love of 
honor had affected the Governor, beseeches him to adopt 
and practise the principles of toleration, and assures him, 
that if he should follow out his principles he must proceed 
to bloodshed. This prediction was soon after fulfilled in the 
execution of the Quakers. 

In an appendix, is an address "To the Clergy of the four 
great Parties (professing the name of Christ Jesus) in Eng- 
land, Scotland and Ireland, viz. the Popish, Prelatical, 
Presbyterian and Independent." It is mild and respectful, 
though it accuses them all of persecuting each other, when 
they possessed the power. He says: "Just like two men, 
whom I have known break out to blows and wrestling, so 
have the Protestant Bishops WTestled with the Popish, and 
the Popish with the Protestant, the Presbyterian with the 
Independent, and the Independent with the Presbyterian. 
And our chronicles and experiences have told this nation 
and the world, how he whose turn it is to be brought under, 
hath ever felt a heavy, wrathful hand of an unbrotherly and 
unchristian persecution," (p. 316.) He says, that they all 
pleaded for freedom when they were persecuted, and adds, 
"What excellent subscriptions to this soul freedom are in- 
terwoven in many passages of the late King's book (if 
his.)"* 



* Alluding to the " Eikon Basilike," a book, which purported to 
have been written by Charles I. and which, it is thought, contributed 
to the restoration of his son. It was, however, an imposition, Dr. 
Gauden being the real author. Mr. Williams, it seems had sagacity 
enough to doubt its authenticity. Milton assailed it with his " Eico- 
noclastes." 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 375 

He alludes to the ejected clergy, and makes the follow- 
ing appeal, which is very honorable to his feelings : — " I 
make another humble plea (and that, I believe, with all the 
reason and justice in the world) that such who are ejected, 
undone, impoverished, might, some way, from the state or 
you, receive relief and succor ; considering that the very 
nation's constitution hath occasioned parents to train up, 
and persons to give themselves to studies (though, in truth, 
but in a way of trading and bargaining before God) yet it 
is according to the custom of the nation, who ought, there- 
fore, to share also in the fault of such parents and minis- 
ters, who, in all changes, are ejected." How different is 
this language from that of a rash, proscriptive reformer, 
who, in his zeal for what he esteems right, disregards every 
consideration of justice or humanity ! The clergy whom 
Mr. Williams had especially in view were the Episcopal 
ministers, who had been expelled from their benefices. He 
did not believe them, in general, to be fit to preach, but he 
wished them to be treated with kindness and liberality. 



376 MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

Hireling Ministrj none of Christ's — the ministry — controversy with 
George Fox — other writings — character as a writer — his general 
character. 

In the same year, 1652, in which the last mentioned 
book was published, Mr. Williams printed a pamphlet, with 
the title, "■ The Hireling Ministry none of Christ's, or a 
Discourse touching the Propagating the Gospel of Christ 
Jesus. Humbly presented to such pious and honorable 
hands, whom the present debate thereof concerns. By 
Roger Williams, of Providence, in New-England. London. 
Printed in the second month." It is a small quarto, of thirty- 
six pages. No copy is known to the writer to exist in this 
country, except in the Library of the American Antiqua- 
rian Society, in Worcester, which contains a duplicate. 
One of the copies was loaned to the author, by the polite- 
ness of the Librarian. 

This pamphlet is valuable, because it contains a more 
clear exposition of Mr. Williams' views respecting the 
ministry, than any other of his works. It begins with an 
" Epistle Dedicatory, to all such honorable and pious hands, 
whom the present debate touching the propagating of 
Christ's Gospel concerns ; and to all such gentle Bereans, 
who, with ingenious civility, desire to search, whether 
what's presented concerning Christ Jesus be so or not.'' 
In this epistle, the author says, " I have not been altogether 
a stranger to the learning of the Egyptians, and have trod 
the hopefullest paths to worldly preferment, which, for 
Christ's sake, I have forsaken. I know what it is to study, 
to preach, to be an elder, to be applauded, and yet also 
what it is to tug at the oar, to dig with the spade and 
plough, and to labor and travel day and night, amongst 
English, amongst barbarians." 

The chief purpose of the work is, to oppose a legal 
establishment of religion, and the compulsory support of 
the clergy. 

The principal points maintained are three : 1. There is 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 377 

now no ministry, which is authorized to preach to the 
heathen, or to exercise pastoral functions. 2. There ought 
to be a perfect liberty to all men to maintain such worship 
and ministry as they please. 3. Ministers ought be sup- 
ported, by voluntary donations, and not by legal provision. 

1. On the first point, he partially stated his views, in his 
preceding works on the Bloody Tenet; but in this pamphlet, 
he expounds them more fully. His opinions appear to have 
rested entirely on a misconception of passages in the Reve- 
lations. He believed, that the " white troopers" mentioned 
in the 6th and 19th chapters of Revelations, were the true 
ministers, and that they were utterly routed, till after the 
slaying of the witnesses and their resurrection. *' The 
apostolical commission and ministry is long since interrupt- 
ed and discontinued, yet ever since the beast Antichrist 
rose, the Lord Jesus hath stirred up the ministry of pro- 
phecy, who must continue their witness and prophecy, until 
their witness be finished, and slaughters, probably near 
approaching, be accomplished." " In the poor small span 
of my life, I desired to have been a diligent and constant 
observer, and have been myself many ways engaged, in 
city, in country, in court, in schools, in universities, in 
churches, in Old and New-England ; and yet cannot, in 
the holy presence of God, bring in the result of a satisfy- 
ing discovery, that either the begetting ministry of the 
apostles or messengers to the churches, or the feeding and 
nourishing ministry of pastors and teachers, according to 
the first institution of the Lord Jesus, are yet restored and 
extant." — p. 4. 

In his "Bloody Tenet made more Bloody," he says, that 
*' Christ Jesus sends out preachers three ways : 1st. In his 
own person, as the twelve and seventy. 2dly. By his visible, 
kingly power, left in the hands of his true churches, and 
the officers and governors thereof. 3dly. Christ Jesus, as 
King of the Church and Head of his body, during the dis- 
tractions of his house and kingdom, under Antichrist's 
apostacy, immediately by his own Holy Spirit, stirs up and 
sends out those fiery witnesses to testify against Antichrist 
and his several abominations." — p. 99. 

He says, in the work before us : " All (of what rank 
soever) that have knowledge and utterance of heavenly 
mysteries, and therein are the Lord's prophets and witnesses 



378 MEMOIR OF 

against Antichrist, must prophesy against false Christs, 
false faith, false love, false joy, false worship and ministra- 
tions, false hope and false Heaven, which poor souls in 
a golden dream expect and look for. 

" This prophecy ought to be (chiefly) exercised among 
the saints, in the companies, meetings and assemblies of 
the fellow-mourners, and witnesses against the falsehoods 
of Antichrist. If any come in (as 1 Cor : 14,) yea, if they 
come to catch, God will graciously more or less vouchsafe 
to catch them, if he intends to save them. 

" But for the going out to the nations, cities, towns, as 
to the nations, cities, and towns of the world, unconverted, 
until the downfal of the Papacy, (Rev. 18,) and so the 
mounting of the Lord Jesus and his white troopers again 
(Rev. 19, &c.) for the going out to preach upon hire ; for 
the going out to convert sinners, and yet to hold commu- 
nion with them as saints in prayer ; for the going out with- 
out such a powerful call from Christ, as the twelve and 
the seventy had, or without such suitable gifts as the first 
ministry was furnished with, and this especially without a 
due knowledge of the prophecies to be fulfilled, I have 
no faith to act, nor in the actings and ministries of others." 
—pp. 21, 22. 

He avers, nevertheless, that he had strong desires to labor 
for the good of all men : "By the merciful assistance of the 
Most High, I have desired to labor in Europe, in Amer- 
ica, with English, with Barbarians, yea, and also, I have 
longed after some trading with the Jews themselves, for 
whose hard measure, I fear the nations and England hath 
yet a score to pay." — p. 13. He states his opinion, how- 
ever, that no remarkable conversion of the nations is yet 
to be expected, because smoke filled the temple till Anti- 
christ was overthrown. Rev. 15 : 8. 

In the " Bloody Tenet made more Bloody," he says, on 
this subject, that though he approved endeavors to teach 
the Indians, yet, " that any of the ministers spoken of are 
furnished with true apostolical commission (Matt. 28,) I 
see not, for these reasons : 1st. The ordinary ministry, is 
not the apostolical, Eph. 4. 1 Cor. 12. 2dly. The churches 
of New-England are not pure churches. 3dly. Men can- 
not preach to the Indians in any propriety of their speech 
or language." — p. 219. 

These extracts sufficiently explain his views. It is re- 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 379 

markable, that a man, whose mind was so strong and clear, 
on most subjects, should become perplexed with such dif- 
ficulties, in relation to the ministry and the church. That 
the passages in the Apocalypse, to which he refers, do not 
authorize his conclusions, we need not attempt to prove. 
He might well deny, that most of the communities which 
then claimed to be Christian churches, were entitled to the 
name ; and might, with truth, maintain, that a large propor- 
tion of those who professed, at that time, to be ministers 
of Christ, were not sanctioned by his commission. But it 
did not follow, that no church, formed according to the 
models furnished in the New Testament, then existed, and 
that no true ministers could be found. A company of true 
believers, united in one society, for worship, for mutual 
watchfulness, for the maintenance of discipline, and for the 
celebration of the ordinances, is a church. A pious man, 
who can teach others, and who is moved, by a proper 
conviction of duty, and is authorized by a church, to preach 
the Gospel, is a duly appointed minister. It is manifest, 
from the tenor of the New Testament, that an order of 
ministers was intended to be continued. The same ends 
for which the first ministers were appointed, — the conver- 
sion of the impenitent, and the edification of believers, — 
still require, that ministers be employed in the work of 
spreading and upholding Christianity. The same means 
are to be employed, — the declaration of divine truth. The 
supernatural gifts of the first ministers were necessary, as 
an attestation of the truth of Christianity ; but it was not 
by the miracles, but by the truth, accompanied by the in- 
fluences of the Holy Spirit, that men were converted. The 
experience of modern missions demonstrates, that men can 
learn to speak " with propriety" the languages of the heathen, 
and that the Gospel, when preached now, in Burmah, or 
in Hindostan, or in Greenland, or in our western forests, is 
" the power of God unto salvation to every one that believ- 
eth." Rom. 1 : 16. 

But it is needless to argue a point, so clear as this. Mr. 
Williams' erroneous views on the subject before us, did not 
affect his feelings on the great question of religious liberty. 
He was willing, that others should establish churches and 
maintain ministers, if they chose. This is the second point 
which we mentioned. 



380 MEMOIR OF 

2. He says, " I desire not that liberty to myself, which 
I would not freely and impartially weigh out to all the con- 
sciences of the world beside. And, therefore, I do humbly 
conceive, that it is the will of the Most High, and the ex- 
press and absolute duty of the civil powers, to proclaim an 
absolute freedom in all the three nations, yea, in all the 
world, (were their power so large) that each town and divis- 
ion of people, yea, and each person, may freely enjoy what 
worship, what ministry, what maintenance to afford them, 
their soul desireth." — p. 19. In a subsequent page, he 
adds: " All these consciences (yea, the very consciences 
of the Papists, Jews, &c. as I have proved at large in my 
answer to Master Cotton's washings) ought freely and im- 
partially to be permitted their several respective worships, 
their ministers of worships, and what way of maintaining 
them, they freely choose." 

3. On the subject of maintenance, he strongly objects 
to a "stated salary," by which he evidently means a sti- 
pend, fixed and raised by law. He contends, that minis- 
ters ought to be supported, like the first preachers, by vol- 
untary donations. He does not fully explain his views, but 
it does not appear, that he had any objection to a fixed 
sum, or to any particular mode of collecting it, provided 
that it was voluntarily paid. The compulsory maintenance 
of the clergy, by tithes, and other modes of taxation, with- 
out any concurrence of the persons taxed, was the system 
against which he argued. He insisted, nevertheless, that 
ministers are entitled to a maintenance, and that the mem- 
bers of a church may be compelled, by the proper use of 
spiritual power, to perform their duty, in contributing to 
the support of a minister. In the " Bloody Tenet," (p. 
168) he says : " To that Scripture, Gal. 6:6. ' Let him 
that is taught in the word make him that teacheth partake 
of all his goods,' I answer, that teaching was of persons 
converted, believers entered into the school and family of 
Christ, the Church, which Church, being rightly gathered, 
is also rightly invested with the power of the Lord Jesus, to 
force every soul therein by spiritual weapons and penalties 
to do its duty." 

The doctrines of Roger Williams, on this subject, as well 
as on the general principle of liberty of conscience, are rap- 
idly gaining the victory over the old system. A legal pro- 
vision for the clergy, by which all the citizens are compelled 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 381 

to pay for the support of religious teachers, whether they 
choose to hear them or not, is unjust in principle, and 
pernicious in practice ; producing discontent and odium 
among the people, and tending to introduce mere worldly 
and mercenary men into the ministry. Its effects, even in 
Massachusetts, have convinced men, of all parties, of its 
inexpediency. It is a coincidence, which the author 
views with pleasure, that, while this book has been passing 
through the press, the citizens of Massachusetts have 
adopted an amendment of the Constitution, which, in its 
results, will sweep away the last relic of the old system. 
The principles of Roger Williams will soon be triumph- 
antly established in Massachusetts, and there will not be, 
even in theory, any dominant and favored sect, in this ven- 
erable commonwealth. In every other State in our Union, 
entire religious freedom is enjoyed. In England, the march 
is onward. In a few years, her establishment must fall, 
and religion be placed, where it should be, under the pro- 
tection of the Saviour, drawing her revenues from the wil- 
ling hands of his followers, and renewing her strength and 
beauty, by taking her appropriate station, like the angel in 
the sun, high above the contaminations of the earth. 

The book before us ends, with what the author calls the 
'' sum?na totalis :" 

" 1st. The civil state is bound, before God, to take off 
that bond and yoke of soul oppression [the national estab- 
lishment] and to proclaim free and impartial liberty to all 
the people of the three nations, to choose and maintain 
what worship and ministry their souls and consciences are 
persuaded of. 

" 2dly. The civil state is humbly to be implored to pro- 
vide, in their high wisdom, for the security of all these re- 
spective consciences, in their respective meetings, assem- 
blings, worshippings, preachings, disputings, &c. and that 
civil peace, and the beauty of civility and humanity, be 
maintained among the chief opposers and dissenters. 

"3dly. It is the duty of all that are in authority, and of 
all that are able, to countenance, and encourage and sup- 
ply all such true volunteers, as give and devote themselves 
to the service and ministry of Christ Jesus in any kind ; 
although it be also the duty, and will be the practice, of all 
such, whom the Spirit of God sends upon any work of 
33 



382 MEMOIR OF 

Christ's, rather to work, as Paul did among the Corinthi- 
ans and Thessalonians, than the work and service of their 
Lord and Master should be neglected." pp. 29, 30. 

Mr. Williams is said to have published, in London, in 
the same year, 1652, a work, entitled, " Experiments of 
Spiritual Life and Health, and their Preservatives." Of 
this book, no copy has come to our knowledge. 

The only remaining printed book of Mr. Williams, is 
his narrative of the dispute with the Quakers. It is enti- 
tled, "George Fox digged out of his Burrowes, or an Offer 
of Disputation on fourteen Proposals, made this last Sum- 
mer, 1672, (so called,) unto G. Fox, then present on 
Rhode-Island, in New-England, by R. W. As also how 
(G. Fox slily departing) the Disputation went on, being 
managed three Days at Newport, on Rhode-Island, and 
one day at Providence, between John Stubs, John Burnet, 
and William Edmundson, on the one Part, and R. W. on 
the other. In which many Quotations out of G. Fox and 
Ed. Burrowes' Book in Folio are alleged. With an Ap- 
pendix, of some Scores of G. F. his simple and lame An- 
swers to his Opposites, in that Book, quoted and replied to, 
by R. W. of Providence, in N. E. Boston. Printed by 
John Foster, 1676." It is a small quarto volume, of 327 
pages. Its execution is creditable to the American press, 
at that early d^ay. 

The book is dedicated to the King, Charl-es II. in a cour- 
teous epistle, in which Mr. Williams calls New-England a 
*' miserable, cold, howling wilderness," yet says, that God 
*' hath made it His glory, your Majesty's glory, and a glory 
to the English and Protestant name." 

There is also an epistle " To the People called Qua- 
kers," in which the author says, " From my childhood, 
(now above threescore years) the Father of Lights and Mer- 
cies touched my soul with a love to himself, to his only- 
begotten, the true Lord Jesus, to his Holy Scriptures, &c. 
His infinite wisdom hath given me to see the city, court and 
country, the schools and universities of my native country, 
to converse with some Turks, Jews, Papists, and all sorts 
of Protestants, and by books, to know the affairs and relig- 
ions of all countries, &c. My conclusion is, that Be of 
good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee (Matt. 9) is one of 
the joyfuUest sounds that ever came to poor sinful ears." 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 



383 



He says, " I have used some sharp, scripture language, 
but not (as commonly you do) passionately and unjustly." 

He adds a letter " to those many learned and pious men 
whom G. Fox hath so sillily and scornfully answered in his 
book in folio, especially to those whose names I have been 
bold to mention in the Narrative and Appendix, Mr. Rich- 
ard Baxter, Mr. John Owen, &-c." In this letter is this 
kind and liberal sentence : " As to matters in dispute be- 
tween yourselves and me, I willingly omitted them, as 
knowing, that many able and honest seamen, in their ob- 
servations of this sun (one picture of Christ Jesus) differ 
sometimes in their reckonings, though uprightly aiming at, 
and bound for, one port and harbor." 

Then follows the main body of the work, containing an 
interesting account of the dispute, and a long and tedious 
examination of numerous points of doctrine, which Mr. 
Fox and his friends maintained. We cannot present an 
analysis of the book. It would afford neither profit nor 
pleasure. Much of the discussion is a dispute about dark 
questions, and many of Mr. Williams' objections arose, 
probably, from the uncouth phraseology with which Mr. 
Fox obscured his real meaning. Mr. Williams might 
easily misunderstand his opponents, while they insisted so 
strongly on the teachings of the inward light, on the for- 
mation of Christ in the soul, and other similar doctrines, 
Mr. Fox, too, assumed some positions, which none of the 
Friends would now approve. He justified, for example, 
the abominable conduct of the females who appeared 
naked in the streets, and contended that they acted under 
divine inspiration. Mr. Williams said, *' You shall never 
persuade souls (not bewitched) that the Holy Spirit of God 
should persuade your women and maidens to appear in 
public streets and assemblies stark naked." Mr. Fox re- 
plied, "We do believe thee in that dark, persecuting, 
bloody spirit that thou and the New-England priests are 
bewitched in, you cannot believe, that you ^.re'naked from 
God, and his clothing, and blind. And therefore hath the 
Lord in his power moved some of his sons and daughters 
to go naked; yea, and they did tell them, in Oliver's days, 
and the Long Parliament's, that God would strip them of 
their Church profession, and of their power, as naked as 
they were. And so they were true prophets and prophet- 



384 MEMOIR OF 

esses to the nation, as many sober men have confessed 
since, though thou and the old persecuting priests in New- 
England remain in your blindness and nakedness." * Mr. 
Williams might well abhor Mr. Fox's principles, if this 
had been a fair specimen of their tendency. 

Mr. Williams was accused by Mr. Fox and others of ad- 
vocating persecution, because he condemned the use of 
Thee and Thou to superiors, as uncivil, and declared, that 
*' a due and moderate restraint and punishing of these in- 
civilities (though pretending conscience) is as far from 
persecution (properly so called) as that it is a duty and 
command of God unto all mankind, first in families, and 
thence unto all mankind societies." p. 200. Mr. Wil- 
liams did not reason on this point with his usual clearness. 
If a man is conscientious about using the terms Thee and 
Thou, and wearing his hat, he ought to be allowed to do 
so, because these customs do not necessarily interfere with 
any other man's rights. But Mr. Williams viewed them as 
offences against civil decorum, and thought that they should 
be restrained and punished as such. He cannot, therefore, 
be justly accused of inconsistency in relation to his princi- 
ples of religious liberty. He probably had in his view the 
offensive language, which some of the persons called Qua- 
kers used toward magistrates and others. f It is, indeed, a 
curious circumstance, that many of the early Quakers 
were remarkable for a spirit of bitter railing. Mr. Baxter 
says : " The Quakers, in their shops, when I go along Lon- 
don streets, say, ' Alas ! poor man, thou art yet in dark- 
ness.' They have oft come into the congregation, when I 
had liberty to preach Christ's Gospel, and cried out against 
me as a deceiver of the people. They have followed me 
home, crying out in the streets, * The day of the Lord is 
coming, when thou shalt perish as a deceiver.' They have 
stood in the market-place, and under my window year after 
year, crying out to the people, ' Take heed of your priests, 
they deceive your souls !' and if they saw any one wear a 
lace or a rich clothing, they cried out to me, ' These are 
the fruit of thy ministry.' " | Similar scenes were ex- 



* N. E. Firebrand Quenched, p 9. 

tSee Humphrey Norton's letter to Governor Prince, of Plymouth, 
Backus, vol. i. p. 322. t Works, vol. i. p. 689. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 385 

hibited in this country. There was a remarkable con- 
trast, at that time, between the language and the general 
demeanor of the Quakers. They used no force, and made 
no resistance, but they uttered, without stint, the most vir- 
ulent epithets. It might seem, that they had literally 
adopted the counsel of Minerva to Achilles — not to un- 
sheathe the sword, but to reproach their adversaries with 
words : 

" Mvi^l ^i(pog iXKiO ^il^l\ 

Mr. Williams, in writing his book, caught some of the 
same spirit, and used a style of contemptuous bitterness, 
which was not natural to him. Mr. Fox and Mr. Burn- 
yeat replied in the same strain, though with more coarse- 
ness. Their book is a quarto, of 489 pages. It is en- 
titled, '' A New-England Firebrand Quenched," ^c. 
They filled twenty-four pages with words and phrases 
culled from Mr. Williams' book, with this preface : "A 
catalogue of R. W's. envious, malicious, scornful, railing 
stuif, false accusations and blasphemies, which he foully 
and unchristianlike hath scattered and dispersed through 
his book." At the end are two letters, the one from Mr. 
Coddington, and the other from Mr. Richard Scott, in 
both of which Mr. Williams is spoken of with much harsh- 
ness. 

But we have done with these books. It would be well, 
for the reputation of all the parties, if they could be for- 
gotten. 

We have thus reviewed all the printed books of Mr. 
Williams, of which we have been able to obtain copies. 
Two or three treatises, which he wrote, were not, it is pre- 
sumed, printed. Among these, was the essay concerning 
the patent, which excited the displeasure of the magistrates 
in Massachusetts, before his banishment. t At the end of 
his Key, he says, " I have further treated of these natives 
of New-England, and that great point of their conversion, 
in a little additional discourse to this." This discourse 
we have never seen. In the letter to Governor Bradstreet, 
(page 353 of this volume) Mr. Williams speaks of a col- 

* Iliad, A. 1. 210, 211. t See pages 57 and 58 of this volume. 
33* 



386 MEMOIR OF 

lection of heads of discourses preached to the " scattered 
English at Narraganset," and which Mr. Williams re- 
quests the Governor to assist him in printing. It does 
not appear that it was printed. Dr. Holmes, (Annals, vol. 
i. p. 411) says, '* In the Prince Collection of MSS. are 
heads of discourses, which he delivered to the Narragan- 
set Indians." An ineffectual search has been made among 
the MSS. referred to, for these heads of discourses, which 
may have been mislaid. They may be the same as those 
mentioned in the letter to Governor Bradstreet. 

There is said to be a MS. of one hundred and six quarto 
pages, in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 
entitled, " Esau and Jacob's Mystical Harmony," &lc. writ- 
ten in 1666, with a memorandum in Dr. Stiles' hand- 
writing, " I suppose Roger Williams." We have not had 
an opportunity to examine this manuscript. 

The letters of Mr. Williams were very numerous. He 
held an extensive correspondence. Many of these letters 
are preserved, and many others are referred to, which 
have perished. 

Of the character of Mr. Williams, as a writer, those who 
have read the letters and extracts from his books, contain- 
ed in this volume, can form a judgment. His style is very 
original and characteristic. It is the outpouring of a full 
and ardent mind, too intent on the thought, to be very 
careful of the expression. It is, consequently, not always 
correct ; but it is always clear and forcible. He exhibits 
ample learning, and quotations from the classics are scat- 
tered through his writings, in an easy and natural manner. 
He was very familiar with the Scriptures, which he read 
in the original languages ; though he, like most theological 
writers of that time, was imperfectly acquainted with the 
laws of interpretation. He had a very active imagination, 
and his style is full of figures, always striking, and often 
happy, but not uniformly selected and applied, with a pure 
taste. This liveliness of his fancy made him fond of puns 
and quaint expressions, which he used, however, with no 
design to amuse the reader, but to illustrate and enforce 
his meaning. He had, indeed, a poetical mind, and some 
passages of his works remind us of the magnificent periods 
of Milton and Taylor. The specimens of his verses in his 
Key, though superior to much of the contemporary rhyme 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 387 

contained in Morton's Memorial and Mather's Magnalia, 
are inferior, in real poetic feeling and expression, to some 
paragraphs of his prose works. He was one of those poets 
mentioned by Wordsworth, 

'• That are sown 
By nature ; men endowed with highest gifts, 
The vision and the faculty divine, 
Yet wanting the accomphshment of verse." 

His writings, in short, like those of all great minds, 
are a reflection of his own character, and are marked with 
his excellencies and his faults. 

We must now close this book with a few observations 
concerning his character. It is unnecessary to dwell mi- 
nutely on this point, for no man was ever more transparent ; 
and those who have traced his history, have had ample 
means of forming their own judgment. 

His mental faculties were of a high order. His mind 
was strong, original and independent. The clearness with 
which he discerned the true principles of religious liberty, 
and the steadiness with which he maintained them, in 
opposition to the general theory and practice of that 
age, show a superior intellect. Few men are far in ad- 
vance of their contemporaries ; and this is a wise arrange- 
ment of Providence, for such men are not so immediately 
useful, as many others of inferior powers. They are not 
understood — they offend the prejudices, and wound the 
self-love of men. Their influence is of the nature of pro- 
phecy. They plant principles, which are of slow growth, 
but which will eventually produce rich fruit. Such indi- 
viduals must be content to live for posterity. They must 
be steadfast in upholding the truth, though amid ingrati- 
tude and opposition, cheered by the bright prospect of 
future triumph. 

Mr. Williams was of this class of men, and his station 
in that class is a proof of the elevation and vigor of his 
mind. 

It is an evidence, also, of superior moral qualities. It 
requires a spirit of self-sacrifice, a pure love of truth, a 
benevolent zeal for the welfare of mankind, an elevation 
above selfish ends. All these traits of character Mr. Wil- 
liams possessed. He was sincerely pious. Love to God 
dwelt habitually in his soul, and controlled his feelings and 



388 MEMOIROF 

his actions. In his books and letters, every topic takes a 
hue from his piety. His magnanimous forgiveness of inju- 
ries, his zeal for the welfare of all who sought his aid, his 
untiring benevolence towards the hapless savages, his pat- 
riotic and self-denying toils for the prosperity of his colony, 
all show the efficacy and fervor of those religious princi- 
ples which governed him. Mr. Callender said of him, 
" Mr. Williams appears, by the whole course and tenor of 
his life and conduct here, to have been one of the most 
disinterested men that ever lived, a most pious and heavenly 
minded soul." * Dr. Bentley says : '' In Salem, every 
person loved Mr. Williams. He had no personal enemies, 
under any pretence. All valued his friendship. Kind 
treatment could win him, but opposition could not conquer 
him. He was not afraid to stand alone for truth against 
the world, and he had address enough with his firmness, 
never to be forsaken by the friends he had ever gained. 
He had always a tenderness of conscience, and feared 
every offence against moral truth. He breathed the purest 
devotion. He was a friend of human nature, forgiving, 
upright and pious. He understood the Indians better than 
any man of his age. He made not so many converts, but 
he made more sincere friends." t 

His religious principles were those of Calvin. His views 
of the ordinances of the Gospel were, undoubtedly, after 
his baptism, those now held by the Baptists. But he did 
not acknowledge himself as belonging to any denomina- 
tion ; because he believed, that there are now neither true 
churches, nor persons authorized to administer the ordi- 
nances. 

His political principles were decidedly in favor of the 
rights of the people. He not only displayed them, in the 
civil constitution of his colony, but he repeatedly stated 
them in his books. Such passages as the following contain 
his political creed : 

" Kings and magistrates must be considered invested 
with no more power than the people betrust them with." 
" The sovereign power of all civil authority is founded in 
the consent of the people." | 

* Century Discourse, p. 17. t 1 His. Col. vi. p. 249. 

t Bloody Tenet, pp. 116, 243. 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 389 

The faults of Mr. Williams sprung, in part, from the im- 
perfection of human nature, and in part from his tempera- 
ment and the constitution of his mind. He was ardent, 
and his imagination was the most active of his intellectual 
faculties. He sometimes adopted opinions, rather by a 
sudden bound of the imagination, than by a regular pro- 
cess of reasoning. His ardor, and his conscientious and 
fearless love of truth, impelled him to act on his opinions, 
with a degree of energy and firmness which exposed him 
to the charge of obstinacy. Such a man will occasionally 
fall into error, and into rapid transitions, which will give 
to his conduct the appearance of inconsistency. This was 
the case with Mr. Williams, in some of his actions, but the 
inconsistency never affected his great principles. These 
he never abandoned for a moment. His course was steadily 
onward, like that of a planet, though disturbing causes oc- 
casionally produced slight eccentricities. 

In his domestic relations, he seems to have been amiable 
and happy. His expressions of attachment to his family 
prove the strength of his conjugal and parental affection. 
His children grew up to maturity. A numerous posterity 
have arisen to bless his memory, and to feel pleasure in 
the contemplation of his character and the diffusion of his 
fame. 

He is dead, but his principles survive, and are destined 
to spread over the earth. The State which he founded is 
his monument.* Her sons, when asked for a record of 
Roger Williams, may point to her history, unstained by a 
single act of persecution ; to her prosperity, her perfect 
freedom, her tranquil happiness, and may reply, in the 
spirit of the epitaph on the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren, 
in St. Paul's Cathedral, ^'looh around!'' 

" Si monumentum quseris, circumspice." 

*See Appendix I. 



APPENDIX. 



NoTK A. p. 23. 

On the subject of the relationship between Cromwell and Roger 
Williams, an obliging antiquarian friend says : 

'' As to the relationship between Mr. Williams and Oliver Crom- 
well, I can only say, that it was quite remote, if it existed at all. 
In the London Review, for March, 1772, is a genealogy of the 
Cromwell family. As you may not have seen this account, and as 
it may interest you, I will give you an abridgment of it, that you 
may see how near related he was to the Protector. 

" The genealogy was extracted from Welch chronicles, about the 
year 1602, to show the descent of Sir Henry Cromwell, who was 
then living. It commences in the person of Glothyan, fifth Lord 
of Powes, who married Morpeth, daughter and heiress of Edwin ap 
Tydwall, Lord of Cardigan, who was lineally descended from Cave- 
dig, of whom the county of Cardigan took the name of Cavedigion. 
His son, Gwaith Voyd, was Lord of Cardigan, Powes, Gwayte and 
Gwaynesaye. He died about 1066. 

'• From Gwynstan ap Gwaitli, second son of the above Gwaith 
Voyd, was lineally descended, through about thirteen generations, 
or in about four hundred and forty years, Morgan Williams, who, in 
the reign of Henry VIII., married the sister of Thomas Cromwell. 
This Morgan Williams had' a son Richard, who was knighted by 
Henry VIII., not by the name of Vv'illiams, but by the name of 
Cromwell, after his uncle, whose heir he became. This Sir Richard 
had a son Henry, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1.563, 
and mariied Joan, daughter of Sir Ralph Warren, and had six sons 
and four daughters. The sons were Oliver, Robert, Henry, Richard, 
Philip and Ralph. Oliver, the Protector, was the only son of Rob- 
ert, and born in the parish of St. John, in Huntingdon. April 25, 
1599. 

" The above will satisfy us, that the tradition in the family of their 
being a connection by blood with the Protector, may be true. You 
will see, however, that the connection was quite remote." 

Concerning the parents of Mr. Williams, I have discovered noth- 
ing. The name " Roger Williams " occurs in Welsh genealogies. 



392 APPENDIX. 

but without any clue to guide us. I have written to Wales for in- 
formation, but have received no reply. A brother of Mr. Williams, 
named Robert, was one of the early inhabitants of Providence, and 
was afterwards a schoolmaster in Newport. He mentions, in one of 
his books, another brother, " a Turkey merchant." Richard Wil- 
liams, who settled in Taunton, has been supposed to have been a 
brother of Rocrer. 



Note B. p. 54. 

Our note respecting the Anabaptists must be brief. An Anabap- 
tist is one who baptizes again a person previously baptized. The 
Cathari, of the third century, were accustomed to baptize again 
those who joined them from other sects. — Murdock's Mosheim, vol. 
i. p. 247. The name was early applied to those who opposed infant 
baptism, and who baptized those who joined them, though they had 
been baptized in infancy. The name, of course, expressed the 
views of their opponents, and not their own, because they did not 
consider such persons as having been baptized. 

Of the history of the Anabaptists, (retaining this name for the 
sake of convenience,) we cannot now speak. The odium and alarm 
which are alluded to in the text, arose from the disturbances that 
occurred in Germany, about the year 1535. It would be tedious to 
narrate these events ; but it may be stated, briefly, that the peasants, 
oppressed by their feudal lords, made a desperate effort to obtain 
their freedom. Among them were some Anabaptists, mingled with 
Lutherans, Catholics and others. They obtained possession of the 
city of Munster, in Westphalia, and held it about three years ; but 
they were finally overpowered, and the war terminated, after im- 
mense slaughter. It seems to have been a just revolt, and a strug- 
gle for liberty; but it failed, and tlie leaders have been stigmatized 
as fanatics, and as guilty of every species of crime. The story has 
been told by their oppressors and enemies, and it is entitled to very 
little credit. Mosheim seems to have been unable to find words to 
express his abhorrence of the Anabaptists, to whom he imputes most 
of the disorders of the Rustic War. Other writers are more candid. 
Benedict (vol. i. pp. 246, 265) has vindicated the Baptists from the 
charges which have been alleged against them in connection with 
that war. Admitting that very dangerous doctrines were then 
avowed, and wrong actions committed, it is unjust to make the 
Baptists of England and America responsible for them. It would 
be as fair, to impute to Pedobaptists all the atrocities of the Papal 
church. It is suflScient for our present purpose, to prove, that the 
English and American Baptists have never held the principles 
which have been ascribed to the Anabaptists of Germany. The re- 
jection of magistracy has been the most prominent charge. A com- 
pany of persons, called Anabaptists, in London, published a Con- 
fession of Faith, about the year 1611, in which they say: ''The 
office of the magistrate is a permissive ordinance of God." And in 
the following article, they anticipated the doctrines of Roger Wil- 
liams : " The magistrate is not to meddle with religion, or matters 
of conscience, nor to compel men to this or that form of religion ; 



APPENDIX. 393 

because Christ is the King or Lawgiver of the church and con- 
science." — Crosby, vol. i. p. 71, appendix. In a " Confession of 
Faith of seven congregations, or churches of Christ, in London, 
vi^hich are commonly, but unjustly, called Anabaptists," published 
in 1C46, they say : " A civil magistracy is an ordinance of God, set 
up by him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of 
them that do well ; and that in all lawful things, commanded by 
them, subjection ought to be given by us in the Lord, not only for 
wrath, but for conscience sake ; and that we are to make supplica- 
tions and prayers for kings, and for all that are in authority, that 
under them we may live a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness 
and honesty." — Crosby, vol. i. appendix, p. 23. These extracts ex- 
press the doctrines of the English Baptist churches on the point in 
question. The principles of Ptoger Williams, respecting religious and 
civil duties, are sufficiently exhibited in the Memoir. They are the 
principles of the American Baptist churches, and have been so from 
the beginning. In the Confession of Faith of the First Baptist 
Church in Bo'ston, founded in 1665, and the oldest church in what 
was then the colony of Massachusetts, the church say : '' We ac- 
knowledge magistracy to be an ordinance of God, and to submit 
ourselves to them in the Lord, not because of wrath only, but for 
conscience sake." — Winchell's Historical Discourses, p. 10. 



Note C. p. 74. 

The following very interesting letter was first published in the 
first volume of the Massachusetts Historical Collections : 

" Providence, June 22, 1670, (ut vxdgo.) 
'' Major Mason,* 
" My honored, dear and ancient friend, my due respects and 
earnest desires to God, for your eternal peace, &c. 

'' I crave your leave and patience to present you with some few 
considerations, occasioned by the late transactions between your 

* " Major Mason — famous for his services, while captain, in the Pequod war. He was 
a soldier in the Low Countries, under Sir Thomas Fairfax, one of the first settlers of 
Dorchester, Mass. in 1630. He afterwards removed to Windsor, Conn. He put an end 
to the Pequod war, in 163R; was appointed, soon after, iMajor General of the Connecti- 
cut forces, and in May, 16(30, was elected Deputy Governor of that colony. He died at 
Norwich, in the seventy-third year of his age, in 1672 or ]673. An account of the Pe- 
quod war was published by him, republished in Hubbard's Narrative, and by Rev, T. 
Prince. In the fourlli volume of the Massachusetts Historical Collections, a curious 
poem is published, of Governor Wolcott's, giving an account of his predecessor Win- 
throp's embassy to the Court of Charles II., to obtain a charter, in which Mason is men- 
tioned with the highest eulogies. Winlhrop is made to give the King a relation, among 
other things, of the Pequod war, and says : 

'The army now drawn up : to be their head 
Our valiant Mason was commissioned •, 
(Whose name is never mentioned by me, 
Without a special note of dignity.') 

" In granting the charter, Charles speaks thus : 

'Chief in tiie patent, Wintlirop, thou shalt stancJ, 

And valiant Maaori place at thy next hand.'" G. 

34 



394 APPENDIX. 

colony and ours. The last year you were pleased, in one of your 
lines to me, to tell me that you longed to see my face once more 
before you died. I embraced your love, though I feared my old 
lame bones, and yours, had arrested travelling in this world, and 
therefore I was and am ready to lay hold on all occasions of writing, 
as I do at present. 

'' The occasion, I confess, is sorrowful, because I see yourselves, 
with others, embarked in a resolution to invade and despoil your 
poor countrymen, in a wilderness, and your ancient friends, of our 
temporal and soul liberties. 

"It is sorrowful, also, because mine eye beholds a black and 
doleful train of grievous, and, I fear, bloody consequences, at the 
heel of this business, both to you and us. The Lord is righteous in 
all our afflictions, that is a maxim ; the Lord is gracious to all op- 
pressed, that is another ; he is most gracious to the soul that cries 
and waits on him : that is silver, tried in the fire seven times. 

" Sir, I am not out of hopes, but that while your aged eyes and 
mine are yet in their orbs, and not yet sunk down into their holes 
of rottenness, we shall leave our friends and countrymen, our chil- 
dren and relations, and this land, in peace, behind us. To this end, 
Sir, please you with a calm and steady and a Christian hand, to 
hold the balance and to weigh these few considerations, in much 
love and due respect presented : 

" First. When I was unkindly and unchristianly, as I believe, 
driven from my house and land and wife and children, (in the 
midst of a New-England winter, now about thirty-five years past.) 
at Salem, that ever-honored Governor, Mr. Winthrop, privately 
wrote to me to steer my course to the Narraganset Bay and Indians, 
for many high and heavenly and public ends, encouraging me, from 
the freeness of the place from any English claims or patents. I 
took his prudent motion as a hint and voice from God, and waving 
all other thoughts and motions, I steered my course from Salem 
(though in winter snow, which I feel yet) unto these parts, wherein 
I may say Peniel, that is, I have seen the face of God. 

*' Second. I first pitched, and begun to build and plant at Seekonk, 
now Rehoboth, but I received a letter from my ancient friend, Mr. 
Winslow,tIien Governor of Plymouth, professing his own and others' 
love and respect to me, yet lovingly advising me, since I was fallen 
into the edge of their bounds, and they were loth to displease the 
Bay, to remove but to the other side of the water, and then, he said, 
I had the country free before me, and might be as free as them- 
selves, and we should be loving neighbors together. These were 
the joint understandings of these two eminently wise and Christian 
Governors and others, in their day, together with their counsel and 
advice as to the freedom and vacancy of this place, which in this 
respect, and many other Providences of the Most Holy and Only 
Wise, I called Providence. 

^' Third. Sometime after, the Plymouth great sachem, (Ousama- 
quin*) upon occasion, affirming that Providence was his land, and 
therefore Plymouth's land, and some resenting it, the then prudent 
and godly Governor, Mr. Bradford, and others of his godly council, 

* Commonly called Massassoit. 



APPENDIX. 395 

answered, that if, after due examination, it should be found true 
what the barbarian said, yet having, to my loss of a harvest that 
year, been now (though by their gentle advice) as good as banished 
from Plymouth as from the Massachusetts, and I had quietly and 
patiently departed from them, at their motion, to the place where 
now I was, I should not be molested and tossed up and down again, 
while they had breath in their bodies ; and surely, between those, 
my friends of the Bay and Plymouth, I was sorely tossed, for one 
fourteen weeks, in a bitter winter season, not knowing what bread 
or bed did mean, beside the yearly loss of no small matter in my 
trading with English and natives, being debarred from Boston, the 
chief mart and port of New-England. God knows that many 
thousand pounds cannot repay the very temporary losses I have 
sustained. It lies upon the Massachusetts and me, yea, and other 
colonies joining with them, to examine, with fear and trembling, 
before the eyes of flaming fire, the true cause of all my sorrows and 
sufferings. It pleased the Father of spirits to touch many hearts, 
dear to him, with some relentings ; amongst which, that great and 
pious soul, Mr. Winslow, melted, and kindly visited me, at Provi- 
dence, and put a piece of gold into the hands of my wife, for our 
supply. 

" Fourth. When, the next year after my banishment, the Lord 
drew the bow of the Pequod war against the country, in which. Sir, 
the Lord made yourself, with others, a blessed instrument of peace 
to all New-England, I had my share of service to the whole land in 
that Pequod business, inferior to very few that acted, for, 

" 1. Upon letters received from the Governor and Council at 
Boston, requesting me to use my utmost and speediest endeavors to 
break and hinder the league labored for by the Pequods against the 
Mohegans, and Pequods against the English, (excusing the not 
sending of company and supplies, by the haste of the business,) the 
Lord helped me immediately to put my life into my hand, and, 
scarce acquainting my wife, to ship myself, all alone, in a poor 
canoe, and to cut through a stormy wind, with great seas, every 
minute in hazard of life, to the sachem's house. 

<' 2. Three days and nights my business forced me to lodge and 
mix with the bloody Pequod ambassadors, whose hands and arms, me- 
thought, wreaked with the blood of my countrymen, murdered and 
massacred by them on Connecticut river, and from whom I could 
not but nightly look for their bloody knives at my own throat also. 

'' 3. When God wondrously preserved me, and helped me to 
break to pieces the Pequods' negotiation and design, and to make, 
and promote and finish, by many travels and charges, the English 
league with the Narragansets and Mohegans against the Pequods, 
and that the English forces marched up to the Narraganset country 
against the Pequods, I gladly entertained, at my house in Provi- 
dence, the General Stoughton and his officers, and used my utmost 
care that all his officers and soldiers should be well accommodated 
with us. 

*' 4. I marched up with them to the Narraganset sachems, and 
brought my countrymen and the barbarians, sachems and captains, 
to a mutual confidence and complacence, each in other. 

"5. Though I was ready to have marched further, yet, upon 



396 APPENDIX. 

agreement that I should keep at Providence, as an agent between 
the Bay and the army, I returned, and was interpreter and intelli- 
gencer, constantly receiving and sending letters to the Governor 
and Council at Boston, &c., in which work I judge it no imperti- 
nent digression to recite (out of the many scores of letters, at times, 
from Mr. Winthrop.) this one pious and heavenly prophecy, touch- 
ing all New-England, of that gallant man, viz : '• If the Lord turn 
away his face from our sins, and bless our endeavors and yours, at 
this time, against our bloody enemy, we and our children shall long 
enjoy peace, in this, our wilderness condition." And himself and 
some other of the Council motioned, and it was debated, whether or 
no I had not merited, not only to be recalled from banishment, but 
also to be honored with some remark of favor. It is known who 
hindered, who never promoted the liberty of other men's con- 
sciences. These things, and ten times more, I could relate, to show 
that I am not a stranger to the Pequod v/ars and lands, and possibly 
not far from the merit of a foot of land in either country, which I 
have not. 

^' 5. Considering (upon frequent exceptions against Providence 
men) that we had no authority for civil government, I went pur- 
posely to England, and upon my report and petition, the Parlia- 
ment granted us a charter of government for these parts, so judged 
vacant on all hands. And upon this, the country about us was 
more friendly, and wrote to us, and treated us as an authorized 
colony ; only the difference of our consciences much obstructed. 
The bounds of this, our first charter, I (having occular knowledge 
of persons, places and transactions) did honestly and conscien- 
tiously, as in the holy presence of God, draw up from Pawcatuck 
river, which I then believed, and still do, is free from all English 
claims and conquests ; for although there were some Pequods on 
this side the river, who, by reason of some sachems' marriages with 
some on this side, lived in a kind of neutrality with both sides, yet, 
upon the breaking out of the war, they relinquished their land to 
the possession of their enemies, the Narragansets and Nianticks, 
and their land never came into the condition of the lands on the 
other side, which the English, by conquest, challenged; so that I 
must still affirm, as in God's holy presence, I tenderly waved to 
touch a foot of land in which I knew the Pequod wars were main- 
tained and were properly Pequod, being a gallant country ; and 
from Pawcatuck river hitherward, being but a patch of ground, full 
of troublesome inhabitants, I did, as I judged, inoffensively, draw 
our poor and inconsiderable line. 

'' It is true, when at Portsmouth, on Pihode-Island, some of ours, 
in a General Assembly, motioned their planting on this side Pawca- 
tuck. I, hearing that some of the Massachusetts reckoned tliis land 
theirs, by conquest, dissuaded from the motion, until the matter 
should be amicably debated and composed ; for though I questioned 
not our right, &c., yet I feared it would be inexpedient and offen- 
sive, and procreative of these heats and fires, to the dishonoring 
of the King's Majesty, and the dishonoring and blaspheming of 
God and of religion in the eyes of the English and barbarians 
about us. 

" 6. Some time after the Pequod war and our charter from the 



APPENDIX. 397 

Parliament, the government of Massachusetts wrote to myself (then 
chief officer in this colony) of their receiving of a patent from the 
Parliament for these vacant lands, as an addition to the Massachu- 
setts, &c., and thereupon requesting me to exercise no more au- 
thority, &c., for, they wrote, their charter was granted some few 
weeks before ours. I returned, what I believed righteous and 
weighty, to the hands of my true friend, Mr. Winthrop, the first 
mover of my coming into these parts, and to that answer of mine I 
never received the least reply; only it is certain, that, at Mr. Gor- 
ton's complaint against the Massachusetts, the Lord High Admiral, 
President, said, openly, in a full meeting of the commissioners, that 
he knew no other charter for these parts than what Mr. Williams 
had obtained, and he was sure that charter, which the Massachu- 
setts Englishmen pretended, had never passed the table. 

<* 7. Upon our humble address, by our agent, Mr. Clarke, to his 
Majesty, and his gracious promise of renewing our former charter, 
Mr. Winthrop, upon some mistake, had entrenched upon our line, 
and not only so, but, as it is said, upon the lines of other charters 
also. Upon Mr. Clarke's complaint, your grant was called in again, 
and it had never been returned, but upon a report that the agents, 
Mr. Winthrop and Mr. Clarke, were agreed, by mediation of friends, 
(and it is true, they came to a solemn agreement, under hands and 
seals,) which agreement was never violated on our part. 

*' 8. But the King's Majesty sending his commissioners (among 
other of his royal purposes) to reconcile the differences of, and to 
settle the bounds between the colonies, yourselves knov/ how the 
King himself therefore liath given a decision to this controversy. 
Accordingly, the King's Majesty's aforesaid commissioners at Rhode 
Island, (where, as a commissioner for this colony, I transacted with 
them, as did also commissioners from Plymouth.) they composed a 
controversy between Plymouth and us, and settled the bounds be- 
tween us, in which we rest. 

" 9. However you satisfy yourselves with the Pequod conquest; 
with the sealing of your charter some few weeks before ours ; with 
the complaints of particular men to your colony ; yet, upon a due 
and serious examination of the matter, in the sight of God, you will 
find the business at bottom to be, 

" First, a depraved appetite after the great vanilies, dreams and 
shadows of this vanishing life, great portions of land, land in this 
wilderness, as if men were in as great necessity and danger for want 
of great portions of land, as poor, hungry, thirsty seamen have, after 
a sick and stormy, a long and starving passage. This is one of the 
gods of New-England, which the living and most high Eternal will 
destroy and famisli. 

" 2. An unneighboi-ly and unchristian intrusion upon us, as being 
the weaker, contrary to your laws, as well as ours, concerning pur- 
chasing of lands without the consent of the General Court. This I 
told Major Atherton, at his first going up to the Narraganset about 
this business. I refused all their proffers of land, and refused to in- 
terpret for them to the sachems. 

'* 3. From these violations and intrusions arise the complaint of 
many privateers, not dealing as they would be dealt with, according 

34* 



398 APPENDIX. 

to law of nature, the law of the prophets and Christ Jesus, complain- 
ing against others, in a design, when they themselves are delinquents 
and wrong doers. I could aggravate this many ways with Scripture 
rhetoric and similitudes, but I see need of anodynes, (as physicians 
speak,) and not of irritations. Only this I must crave leave to say, 
that it looks like a prodigy or monster, that countrymen among sav- 
ao-es in a wilderness ; that professors of God and one Mediator, of an 
eternal life, and that this is like a dream, should not be content with 
those vast and large tracts which all the other colonies have, (like 
platters and tables full of dainties,) but pull and snatch away their 
poor neighbors' bit or crust; and a crust it is, and a dry, hard one, 
too, because of the natives' continual troubles, trials and vexations. 

'^ 10. Alas ! Sir, in calm midnight thoughts, what are these leaves 
and flowers, and smoke and shadows, and dreams of earthly nothings, 
about which we poor fools and children, as David saith, disquiet our- 
selves in vain ? Alas ! what is all the scuffling of this world for, 
but, come, will yo2i smoke it ? What are all the contentions and wars 
of this world about, generally, but for greater dishes and bowls of 
porridge, of which, if we believe God's Spirit in Scripture. Esau and 
Jacob were types ? Esau will part with the heavenly birthright for 
his supping, after his hunting, for god belly ; and Jacob will part 
with his porridge for an eternal inheritance. O Lord, give me to 
make Jacob's and Mary's choice, which shall never be taken from 
me. 

'^31. How much sweeter is the counsel of the Son of God, to mind 
first the matters of his kingdom ; to take no care for to-morrow ; to 
pluck out, cut off and fling away right eyes, hands and feet, rather 
than to be cast whole into hell-fire ; to consider the ravens and the 
lilies whom a heavenly Father so clothes and feeds ; and the coun- 
sel of his servant Paul, to roll our cares, for this life also, upon the 
most high Lord, steward of his people, the eternal God ; to be con- 
tent with food and raiment; to mind not our own, but every man the 
things of another ; yea, and to suffer wrong, and part with what we 
judge is right, yea, our lives and (as poor women martyrs have said) 
as many as there be hairs upon our heads, for the name of God and 
the son of God his sake. This is humanity, yea this is Christianity. 
The rest is but formality and picture, courteous idolatry and Jewish 
and Popish blasphemy against the Christian rehgion, the Father of 
spirits and his Son, the Lord Jesus. Besides, Sir, the matter with us 
is not about these children's toys of land, meadows, cattle, govern- 
ment, &c. But here, all over this colony, a great number of weak 
and distressed souls, scattered, are flying hither from Old and New- 
England, the Most High and Only Wise hath, in his infinite wisdom, 
provided this country and this corner as a shelter for the poor and 
persecuted, according to their several persuasions. And thus that 
heavenly man, Mr. Haynes, Governor of Connecticut, though he 
pronounced the sentence of my long banishment against me, at 
Cambridge, then Newtown, yet said unto me, in his own house at 
Hartford, being then in some difference with the Bay : '' I think, 
Mr. Williams, I must now confess to you, that the most wise God 
hath provided and cut out this part of his world for a refuge and re- 
ceptacle for all sorts of consciences. I am now under a cloud, and 



APPENDIX. 399 

my brother Hooker, with tlie Bay, as you have been, we have remov- 
ed from them thus far, and yet they are not satisfied." 

" Thus, Sir, the King's Majesty, though his father's and his own 
conscience favored Lord Bishops, which their father and grandfather 
King James, whom I have spoke with, sore against his will, also did, 
yet all the world may see, by his Majesty's declarations and engao-e- 
ments before his return, and his declarations and Parliament speeches 
since, and many suitable actings, how the Father of spirits hath 
mightily impressed and touched his royal spirit, though the Bishops 
much disturbed him, with deep inclination of favor and gentleness 
to different consciences and apprehensions as to the invisible King 
and way of his worship. Hence he hath vouchsafed his royal 
promise under his hand and broad seal, that no person in this colony 
shall be molested or questioned for the matters of his conscience to 
God, so he be loyal and keep the civil peace. Sir, we must part 
with lands and lives before we part with such a jewel. I judge you 
may yield some land and the government of it to us, and we, for 
peace sake, the like to you, as being but subjects to one king, &c. 
and 1 think the King's Majesty would thank us, for many reasons. 
But to part with this jewel, we may as soon do it as the Jews with 
the favor of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes. Yourselves pretend 
liberty of conscience, but alas ! it is but self, the great god self, only 
to yourselves. The King's Majesty winks at Barbadoes, where 
Jews and all sorts of Christian and Antichristian persuasions are 
free, but our grant, some few weeks after yours sealed, though grant- 
ed as soon, if not before yours, is crowned with the King's extraor- 
dinary favor to this colony, as being a banished one, in which his 
Majesty declared himself that he would experiment, whether civil 
government could consist with such liberty of conscience. This 
his Majesty's grant was startled at by his Majesty's high officers of 
state, who were to view it in course before the sealing, but fearing 
the lion's roaring, they couched, against their wills, in obedience to 
his Majesty's pleasure. 

" Some of yours, as I heard lately, told tales to the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, viz. that we are a profane people, and do not keep the 
Sabbath, but some do plough, &c. But, first, you told him not how 
we suffer freely all other persuasions, yea the common prayer, 
w^iicli yourselves will not suffer. If you sa}^ you vvdll, you confess 
you must suffer more, as we do. 

^'2. You know this is but a color to your design, for, first, you 
know that all England itself (after the formality and superstition of 
morning and evening prayer) play away their Sabbath. 2d. You 
know yourselves do not keep the Sabbath, that is the seventh day, 
&c. 

" 3. You know that famous Calvin and thousands more held it but 
ceremonial and figurative, from ColossiansS, &c. and vanished ; and 
that the day of worship was alterable at the churches' pleasure. 
Thus also all the Romanists confess, saying, viz. that there is no ex- 
press scripture, first, for infants' baptisms; nor, second, for abolish- 
ing the seventh day, and instituting of the eighth day worship, but 
that it is at the churches' pleasure. 

"4. You know, that generally, all this whole colony observe the 



400 APPENDIX. 

first day. only here and there one out of conscience, another out of 
covetousness, make no conscience of it. 

'• 5. You know the greatest part of the world make no conscience 
of a seventh day. The next part of the world, Turks, Jews and 
Christians, keep three different days, Friday, Saturday. Sunday for 
their Sabbath and day of worship, and every one maintains his own 
by the longest sword. 

*•' 6. I have offered, and do, by tliese presents, to discuss by disputa- 
tion, writing- or printing, among other points of differences, these 
three positions ; first, that forced worsliip stinks in God's nostrils. 
2d. That it denies Christ Jesus yet to be come, and makes the 
church ye I, national, figurative and ceremonial. 3d. That in these 
flames about religion, as his Majesty, his fathei and g/andfather have 
jnelded, there is no other prudent. Christian way of preserving 
peace in tJie world, but, b}'^ permission of differing coui^ciences. Ac- 
cordingly, I do now offer to dispvite these points and other points of 
diffecence, if you please, at Hartford, Boston and Plymouth. For 
the manner of the dispute and the discussion, if you tliink fit, one 
whole day each month in summer, at each place, by course, I am 
ready, if the Lord permit, and, as I humbly hope, assist me. 

'•' it is said, that you intend not to invade our spiritual or civil lib- 
erties, but only (under the advantage of first sealing your charter) to 
right the privateers that petition to you. It is said, also, that if you 
had bat Mishquomacuck and Narraganset lands quietly yielded, you 
would stop at Coweset, &c. Oh, Sir, what do these thoughts 
preach, but tliat private cabins rule all, whatever become of the ship 
of common safety and religion, which is so much pretended in New- 
England .'' Sir, I have heard further, and by soiifie that say they 
know, that something deeper than all which hath been mentioned 
lies in the three colonies' breasts and consultations. I judge it not fit 
to commit such matter to the trust of paper, &c. but only beseech 
the Father of spirits to guide our poor bewildered spirits, for his 
name and mercy sake. 

'' 15. Whereas our case seems to be the case of Paul appealing to 
Csesar against the plots of his religious, zealous adversaries, I hear 
you pass not of our petitions ajid appeals to his Majesty, for partly 
you think the King will not own a profane people that do not keep 
the Sabbath ; partly you think that the King incompetent judge, 
but you will force him to law also, to confirm your first-born Esau, 
though Jacob had him by the heels, and in God's holy time must 
carry the birthright and inheritance. I judge your surmise is a dan- 
gerous mistake, lor patents, grants and charters, and such like royal 
favors, are not laws of England, and acts of Parliament, nor matters 
of propriety and meum and tuum between the King and his subjects, 
which, as the times have been, have been sometimes triable in infe- 
rior Courts ; but such kind of grants have been like high offices in 
England, of high honor, and ten, yea twenty thousand pounds gain 
per annum, yet revocable or curiable upon pleasure, according to the 
King's better information, or upon his Majesty's sight, or misbehav- 
ior, ingratefulness, or designs fraudulently plotted, private and dis- 
tinct from him. 

" 16. Sir, I lament that such designs should be carried on at such 



APPENDIX. 401 

0, time, while we are stript and wliipt, and arc still under (the whole 
country) the dreadful rods of God, in our wheat, hay, corn, cattle, 
shippinsf, trading, bodies and lives ; when, on the other side of the 
water, all sorts of consciences (yours and ours) are frying in the 
Bishops' pan and furnace ; when the French and Romish Jesuits, the 
firebrands of the world for their god belly sake, are kindling at our 
back, in this country, especially with the Mohawks and Mohegans, 
against us, of which I know and have daily information. 

" 17. If any please to say, is there no medicine for this malady ? 
Must the nakedness of New-England, like some notorious strumpet, 
be prostituted to the blaspheming eyes of all nations ? Must we be 
put to plead before his Majesty, and consequentl}^ the Lord Bishops, 
our common enemies, &c. I answer, the Father of mercies and 
God of all consolations hath graciously discovered to me, as I be- 
lieve, a remedy, which, if taken, will quiet all minds, yours* and 
ours, will keep yours and ours in quiet possession and enjoyment of 
their lands, which you all have so dearly bought and purchased in 
this barbarous country, and so long possessed amongst these wild 
savages ; will preserve you both in the liberties and honors of your 
charters and governments, without the least impeachment of yield- 
ing one to another ; with a strong curb also to those wild barbarians 
and all the barbarians of this country, without troubling of compro- 
misers and arbitrators between you ; without any delay, or long 
and chargeable and grievous address to our King's Majesty, whose 
gentle and serene soul must needs be afflicted to be troubled again 
with us. If you please to ask me what my prescription is, I will not 
put you oft' to Christian moderation or Christian humility, or Chris- 
tian prudence, or Christian love, or Christian self-denial, or Chris- 
tian contention or patience. For I design a civil, a humane and po- 
litical medicine, which, if the God of Heaven please to bless, you 
will find it effec'ual to all the ends I have proposed. Only I must 
crave your pardon, both parties of you, if I judge it not fit to discov- 
er it at present. I know you are both of you hot ; I fear myself, 
also. If both desire, in a loving and calm spirit, to enjoy your 
rights, I promise you, with God's help, to help you to them, in a fair 
and sweet and easy way. My receipt will not please you all. If it 
should so please God to frown upon us that you should not like it, I 
can but humbly mourn, and say with the prophet, that which must 
perish must perish. And as to myself, in endeavoring after your 
temporal and spiritual peace, I humbly desire to say, if I perish, I 
perish. It is but a shadow vanished, a bubble broke, a dream fin- 
ished. Eternity will pay for all. 

" Sir, I am your old and true friend and servant, 

"R. W. 

" To my honored and ancient friend, Mr. Thomas Prince, Gover- 
nor of Plymouth Colony, these present. And by his honored hand 
this copy, sent to Connecticut, whom it most concerneth, I humbly 
present to the General Court of Plymouth, when next assembled." 



The following documents are inserted here, as belonging to the 
history of Roger Williams, though a suitable opportunity did not 
occur to insert them in the text. 



402 APPENDIX. ' 

The subjoined letter was copied for Mr. Backus, by the late Judge 
Howell, of Providence, and was accompanied by the following note, 
in his hand writing : '• This remonstrance was sent in to the town, 
upon their concluding to divide among themselves certain common 
lands, out of which R. Williams wanted some to remain still com- 
mon, for the town afterwards to give occasionally to such as fled to 
them, or were banished for conscience sake, as he at first gave it all 
to them." 

'* Loving friends and neighbors, 

" I have again considered on these papers, and find many consider- 
able things in both of them. My desire is, that after a friendly debate 
of particulars, every man may sit down and rest in quiet with the final 
sentence and determination of the town, for all experience tells us 
that public peace and love is better than abundance of corn and 
cattle, &c. I have one only motion and petition, which I earnestly 
pray the town to lay to heart, as ever they look for a blessing from 
God on the town, on your families, your corn and cattle, and your 
children after you ; it is this, that after you have got over the black 
brook of some soul bondage yourselves, you tear not down the bridge 
after you, by leaving no small pittance for distressed souls that may 
come after you. What though your division or allotment be never 
so small, yet ourselves know that some men's distresses are such, 
that a piece of a dry crust and a dish of cold water, is sweet, which 
if this town will give sincerely unto God, (setting aside some little 
portions for other distressed souls to get bread on) you know who 
hath engaged His heavenly word for your reward and recompense. 
" Yours, ROGER WILLIAMS. 

To the town of Providence." 



The following letter is an honorable evidence of his benevolent 
spirit : 

" JVar. 22, 11, 50, (so called.) 
" Well beloved friends, 

" Loving respects to each of you presented, with hearty desires 
of your present and eternal peace. I am sorry that I am occasioned 
to trouble you in the midst of many your other troubles, yet upon 
the experience of your wonted loving-kindness and gentleness to- 
ward all men and myself also, I pray you hear me patiently. I had 
proposed to have personally attended this Court, and to have pre- 
sented, myself, these few requests following, but being much lamed 
and broken with such travels, I am forced to present you in writing 
these five requests. The first four concern others living and dead 
amongst us ; the fifth, concerns myself. 

" First, then, I pray be pleased to review the propositions between 
us and our dead friend, John Smith ; and since it hath pleased the 
God of all mercies, to vouchsafe this town and others such a mercy, 
by his means, I beseech you study how to put an end to that con- 
troversy depending between us and him, (as I may so speak) and 
his ; 'tis true, you have referred that business to some of our loving 
neighbors amongst you ; but since there are some obstructions, I 
beseech you put forth your wisdoms, who know more ways to the 
wood than one. Ease the first, and appoint others, or some other 
course, that the dead clamor not from his grave against us, but that 



APPENDIX. 403 

the country about us may say, that Providence is not only a wise, 
but a grateful people to the God of mercies, and all his instruments 
of mercy towards us. 

" My second request concerns the dead still. I understand, that 
one of the orphans of our dead friend, Daniel Abbott, is likely (as 
she herself told me) to be disposed of in marriage. 'Tis true she is 
now come to some years, but who knows not what need the poor maid 
hath of your fatherly care, counsel and direction. I would not dis- 
parage the young man (for I hear he hath been laborious) yet with 
your leave, I might say, I doubt not you will not give your daugh- 
ters in marriage to such, whose lives have been in such a course, 
without some good assurance and certificate of his not being en- 
gaged to other women, or otherways criminous, as also of his reso- 
lution to forsake his former course, lest (this inquiry being neglect- 
ed) the maid and ourselves repent when misery hath befallen her, 
and a just reproof and charges befall ourselves, of which we have 
no need. 

" For, thirdly, I crave your consideration of that lamentable object 
(what shall I say, of all our censure or pity, I am sure) of all our 
wonder and astonishment, Mrs. Weston. My experience of the 
distempers of persons elsewhere, makes me confident, that although 
not in all things, yet in a great measure, she is a distracted woman. 
My request is, that you would be pleased to take what is left of 
hers into your own hands, and appoint some to order it for her sup- 
ply, and if it may be, let some public act of mercy to her necessities, 
stand upon record amongst the merciful acts of a merciful town, 
that hath received many mercies from heaven, and remember that 
we know not how soon our wives may be widows, and our children 
orphans, yea, and ourselves be deprived of all or most of our reason, 
before we go from hence, except mercy from the God of mercies 
prevent it. 

" Fourthly. Let me crave your patience, while once more I lead 
your consideration to the grave, amongst the dead, the widows and 
the fatherless. From some neighbors and the widow Mann her- 
self, I understand, that notwithstanding her motherly aflfection, 
which will make all burthens lighter for her children's good, yet 
she is not without fears, that if the town be not favorable to her in 
after times, some hard measure and pressures may befall her. My 
request is, therefore, that it would please you to appoint some of 
yourselves to review the will, and to consider whether the pains of 
the father, deceased, or want of time, hath not occasioned him to 
leave some of his purposes and desires imperfect, as also to propose 
to the town wherein, according to the rules of justice and mercy, 
what the deceased intended, may be perfected, for the greater com- 
fort both of his widow and orphans. 

'•Fifth. My last request concerns myself I cannot be so unthank- 
ful to you, and so insensible of mine own and family's comfort, as 
not to take notice of your continued and constant love and care in 
your many public and solemn orders for the payment of that money 
due unto me about the charter : 'tis true I have never demanded it ; 
yea, I have been truly desirous that it might have been laid out for 
some further public benefit in each town, but observing your loving 
resolution to the contrary, I have at last resolved to write unto you 



404 APPENDIX. 

(as I have also lately done to Portsmouth and Newport) about the 
better ordering it to my advantage. I have here (through God's 
providence) convenience of improving some goats; my request is, 
therefore, that if it may be without much trouble, you would please 
to order the payment of it in cattle of that kind. I have been 
solicited and have promised my help, about iron works, when the 
matter is ripe, earnestly desirous every way to further the good of 
the town of Providence, to which I am so much engaged, and to 
yourselves the loving inhabitants thereof, to whom I desire to be 
"■ Your truly loving and ever faithful, 

" ROGER WILLIAMS. 

" For my well beloved and much respected, the inhabitants of the 
town of Providence. 

*' To Mr. Robert Williams and Mr. Thomas Harris, deputies, or 
either of them." 



[Copied from 3 His. Col. i. p. 178.] 

'' Caiccawmsqussick, 11, 7, 48, (so called.) 
" Dear and worthy Sir, 

" Best salutations to you both and loving sister premised, wishing 
you eternal peace in the only Prince of it. I have longed to hear 
from you and to send to you since this storm arose. The report was 
(as most commonly all Indian reports are) absolutely false, of my 
removing my goods, or the least rag,&c. A fortnight since, I heard 
of the Mohawks coming to Pawcatuck, their rendezvous ; that they 
were provoked by Uncas' wronging and robbing some Pawcatuck 
Indians the last year, and that he had dared the Mohawks, threaten- 
ing, if they came, to set his ground with gobbets of their flesh; that 
our neighbors had given them play, (as they do every year ;) yet 
withal I heard they were divided ; some resolved to proceed, others 
pleaded their hunting season. We have here one Waupinhommin, 
a proud, desperate abuser of us, and a firebrand to stir up the natives 
against us, who makes it all his trade to run between the Mohawks 
and these, and (being a captain also himself) renders the Mohawks 
more terrible and powerful than the English. Between him and 
the chief sachems hath been great consultations, and to my knowl- 
edge, he hath persuaded them to desert their country and become 
one rebellious body or rout with the Mohawks, and so to defy the 
English, ifec. I have sent also what I can inform to the commis- 
sioners. At present, (through mercy) we are in peace. 
" Sir, I desire to be ever 

" Yours in Christ Jesus, 

"ROGER WILLIAMS. 

"The letter I have sent by Warwick, twenty miles nearer than 
by Seekonk. 

'• For his much honored, kind friend, Mr. John Winthrop, at his 
house, in Nameag, these." 



" Loving friends and neighbors, 
" Divers of yourselves have so cried out, of the contentions of 
your late meetings, that (studying my quietness) I thought fit to 
present you with these few lines. Two words I pray you to consider. 



APPENDIX. 405 

First, as to this plantation of Providence : then ag to some new- 
plantation, if it shall please the same God of mercies who provided 
this, to provide another in mercy for us. ] . As to this town, although 
I have been called out, of late, to declare my understanding as to 
the bounds of Providence and Pawtuxet ; and, although divers have 
lands and meadows in possession beyond these bounds, yet I hope 
that none of you think me so senseless as to put on any barba- 
rian to molest an Englishman, or to demand a farthing of any of 
you. 

" 2. If any do (as formerly some have done, and divers have given 
gratuities, as Mr. Field, about Notaquoncanot and others.) I prom- 
ise, that as I have been assistant to satisfy and pacify the natives 
round about us, so I hope I shall still while I live be helpful to any 
of you that may have occasion to use me. 

'' Now, as to some new plantation, I desire to propose that which 
may quench contention, may accommodate such who want, and 
may also return monies unto such as have of late disbursed. 

^- To this purpose, I desire that we be patient, and torment not 
ourselves and the natives, (sachems and people,) putting them upon 
mischievous remedies, wutli the great noise of twenty miles new or 
old purchase. 

'• Let us consider, if Niswosakit and Wayurickeke, and the land 
thereabout, may not afford a new and comfortable plantation, which 
we may go through with an effectual endeavor for true public good. 
To this end, I pray you consider, that the inhabitants of these parts, 
with most of the Cowcset and Nipmucks, have long since forsaken 
the Narraganset sachems and subjected themselves to the Massa- 
chusetts. And yet they are free to sell their lands to any whom 
the Massachusetts shall not protest against. To this end (observing 
their often flights, and to stop their running to the Massachusetts) 
I have parlied with them, and find that about thirty pounds Avill 
cause them to leave those parts, and yield peaceable possession. I 
suppose, then, that the town may do well to give leave to about 
twenty of your inhabitants (of v/hich I offer to be one, and know 
others willing) to lay down thirty shillings a man toward the pur- 
chase. Let every one of this number have liberty to remove him- 
self, or to place a child or friend there. Let every person who shall 
afterward be received into the purchase lay down thirty shillings, 
as hath been done in Providence, which may be paid (by some order 
agreed on) to such as lately have disbursed monies unto the effect- 
ing of this. I offer, gratis, my time and pains, in hope that such as 
want may have a comfortable supply amongst us, and others made 
room for, who may be glad of shelter also. 
•' Yours to serve you, 

'•ROGER WILLIAMS. 
27, 8, 60 {so called.y 

'• Providence, 13, 10, 61 (so called.) 
'' 1. I testify and declare, in the holy presence of God, that when 
at my first coming into these parts, T obtained the lands of Seekonk 
of Ousamaquin, the then chief sachem on that side, the Governor 
of Plymouth (Mr. Winslow) wrote to me, in the name of their gov- 
ernment, their claim of Seekonk to be in their jurisdiction, as also 
35 



406 APPENDIX. 

their advice to remove but over the river unto this side, (where 
now, by God's merciful providence, we are,) and then I should be 
out of their claim, and be as free as themselves, and loving neigh- 
bors together. 

'• 2. After I had obtained this place, now called Providence, of 
Canonicus and Miantinomo, the chief Narraganset sachems deceas- 
ed, Ousamaquin, the sachem aforesaid, also deceased, laid his claim 
to this place also. This forced me to repair to the Narraganset 
sachems aforesaid, who declared that Ousamaquin was their subject, 
and had solemnly himself, in person, with , subjected him- 

self and his lands unto them at the Narraganset : only now he 
seemed to revolt from his loyalties under the shelter of the English 
at Plymouth. 

" 3. This I declared from the Narraganset sachems to Ousama- 
quin, who, without any stick, acknowledged it to be true that he had 
so subjected as the Narraganset sachems affirmed ; but withal, he af- 
firmed that he was not subdued by war, which himself and his father 
had maintained against the Narragansets, but God, said he, subdued 
me by a plague, which swept away my people, and forced me to 
yield. 

'• 4. This conviction and confession of his, together with gratui- 
ties to himself and brethren and followers, made him often profess, 
that he was pleased that I should here be his neighbor, and that 
rather because he and I had been great friends at Plymouth, and 
also because that his and my friends at Plymouth advised him to be 
at peace and friendship with me, and he hoped that our children 
after us would be good friends together. 

'• 5. And whereas, there hath been often spread of Providence 
falling within Plymouth jurisdiction, by virtue of Ousamaquin's 
claims. I add unto the testimony abovesaid, that the Governor, Mr. 
Bradford, and other of their magistrates, declared unto me, both by 
conference and writing, that they and their government were satis- 
fied, and resolved never to molest Providence, nor to claim beyond 
Seekonk, but to continue loving friends and neighbors (amongst the 
barbarians) together. 

'' This is the true sum and substance of many passages between 
our countrymen of Plymouth and Ousamaquin and me. 

ROGER WILLIAMS." 



[Copied from 3 His. Col. i. p. 70.] 

" Providence, 16, 8. 76, (ut ridgo.) 
- Sir, 
'• With my humble and loving respects to yourself and other hon- 
ored friends, &c. I thought fit to tell you what the providence of 
the Most High hath brought to my hand the evening before yester- 
day. Two Indian children were brought to me by one Thomas 
Clements, who had his house burnt on the other side of the river. 
He was in his orchard, and two Indian children came boldly to him, 
the boy being about seven or eight, and the girl (his sister) three or 
four years old. The boy tells me, that a youth, one Mittonan, brought 
them to the sight of Thomas Clements, and bid them go to that man, 
and he would give them bread. He saith his father and mother 



APPENDIX. 407 

were taken by the Pequods and Mohegans about ten weeks ago, as 
they were clamming (with many more Indians) at Coweset ; that their 
dwelling was and is at a place called Mittaubscut; that it is upon a 
branch of Pawtuxet river, to Coweset (their nearest saltwater) about 
seven or eight miles; that there are about twenty houses. I cannot 
learn of him that there are above twenty men, beside women and chil- 
dren ; that they live on ground-nuts, &c. and deer; that Aawayse- 
waukit is their sachem; and twelve days ago he sent his son, Wun- 
nawmenceskat, to Uncas, with a present of a basket or two of wam- 
pum. 1 know this sachem is much related to Plymouth, to whom 
he is said to be subject, but he said, (as all of them do) [he] deposit- 
ed his land. I know what bargains he made with the Browns and 
Willets and Rhode-Island and Providence men, and the controver- 
sies between the Narragansets and them, about those lands. I know 
the talk abroad of the right of the three united colonies (by conquest) 
to this land, and the plea of Rhode-Island by the charter and com- 
missioners. I humbly desire that this party may be brought in ; the 
country improved (if God in mercy so please ;) the English not differ 
about it and complaints run to the King (to unknown trouble, charge 
and hazard, &c.) and therefore I humbly beg of God that a commit- 
tee from the four colonies may (by way of prudent and godly wis- 
dom) prevent many inconveniences and mischiefs. I write the sum 
of this to the Governors of Connecticut and Rhode-Island, and 
humbly beg of the Father of mercies to guide you in mercy, for his 
mercy sake. 

" Sir, your unworthy, 

" R. W. 

'•' Excuse my want of paper. 

'• This boy saith, there is another town to the north-cast of them, 
with more houses than twenty, who, 'tis like, correspond to the 
eastward. 

'' To the much honored the Governor Leverett, at Boston, or the 
Governor Winslow, at Plymouth, present." 



The following document was presented to the Court of Commis- 
sioners, mentioned on page 298 of this volume. It is inserted as 
valuable, though mutilated and containing severe remarks on Mr. 
Harris' conduct : 

" The following is a true copy of an original manuscript, which is 
in the hand writing of Roger Williams, and contains all that is writ- 
ten on one sheet in my possession : the remainder of the original 
must have been contained in another sheet which was attached, but 
that is unfortunately lost, it never having come into my possession. 
The original is much worn and broken in the folds, and several lines 
required great care and attention to trace them, but I am confident 
that all that is written here is contained in the original. 

"JOHN HOWLAND. 

Providence, January 30, 1832." 

'• Providence, 18, 8, 1G77, (id vulgo.) 
" Honored Gentlemen, 
" My humble respects presented, with congratulations and prayers 



408 APPENDIX. 

to the Most High, for your merciful preservations in and through 
these late bloody and burning times, the peaceable travelling and 
assembling amongst the ruins and rubbish of these late desolations, 
which the Most High hath justly brought upon us. I crave your 
gentle leave to tell you, that I humbly conceive I am called of God 
to present your wisdoms with what light I can, to make your diffi- 
culties and travails the easier. I am sore grieved that a self-seeking 
contentious soul, who has long afflicted this town and colony, should 
now, with his unseasonable and unjust clamor, afflict our Royal Sov- 
ereign, his honorable Council, New and Old England, and now 
your honored selves, with these his contentious courses. For my- 
self, it hath pleased God to vouchsafe me knowledge and experience 
of his providences in these parts, so that I should be ungratefully 
and treacherously silent at such a time. When his Majesty's Com- 
missioners, Col. Nichols, &c. were here, I was chosen by this colony, 
one of the commissioners to treat with them and with the commis- 
sioners from Plymouth, who then were their honored Governor de- 
ceased, and honored present Governor, about our bounds. It then 
pleased the Father of mercies, in whose most high and holy hands 
the hearts of all men are, to give me such favor in their eyes, that 
afterward, at a great assembly at Warwick, where (that firebrand) 
Philip, his whole country, was challenged by the Narraganset 
sachems, I was sent for, and declared sucli transactions between old 
Canonicus and Ousamaquin, that the commissioners were satisfied, 
and confirmed unto the ungrateful monster his country. The Nar- 
raganset sachems (prompted by some English) told the commissioners, 
that Mr. Williams was but one witness, but the commissioners 
answered that they had such experience of my knowledge in these 
parts, and fidelity, that they valued my testimony as much as twenty 
witnesses. 

" Among so many passages since W. Har. (so long ago) kindled 
the fires of contention, give me leave to trouble you with one, when 
if W. H. had any desire by equal and peaceable converse with men, 
this fire had been quenched ; our General Court, Mishauntatuk men 
and W. Har. agreed that arbitration should heal this old sore. Ar- 
bitrators were chosen, and Mr. Thomas Willet was chosen umpire. 
He, when they met, told them that the arbitrators should consider 
every plea with equity, and allot to every one what the arbitrators' 
consciences told them was right and equal. Mishauntatuk men 
yielded, W. Carpenter, then one with W. Har., yielded. W. Har. 
cried out no ; he was resolved, all or none ; so the honored soul, Mr. 
Willet (as he himself told me) could not proceed, but was forced to 
draw up a protest to acquit himself and the arbitrators from this trust, 
that the obstruction might only be laid on W. Har. his shoulders, 
concerning whom a volume might be written, of his furious, covet- 
ous, and contentious domineering over his poor neighbors. I have 
presented a character of him to his Majesty, (in defence of myself 
against him) in my narrative against George Fox, printed at Boston. 
I think it not seasonable here to trouble your patience with particu- 
lars as to the matter. I humbly refer myself to my large testimony, 
given in writing, at a Court of Trials on the Island, before the honored 
gentleman, deceased, Mr. W. Brenton, then Governor. At the same 



APPENDIX. 409 

time Mr. William Arnold, father to our honored present Governor, 
and Stukely Wcstcott, father to our Governor's wife, gave in their 
testimony with mine, and W. Har. was cast. In that testimony, I 
declare not only how unrighteous, but also how simple is W. Harris 
his ground of pleading, viz. after Miantinomo had set us our bounds 
here in his own person, because of the envious clamors of some 
against myself, one amongst us (not I) recorded a testimony or 
memorandum of a courtesy added (upon request) by the sachem, in 
these words, up stream icithout limits. The courtesy was requested and 
granted, that being shortened in bounds by the sachem because of 
the Indians about us, it might be no offence if our i't'w cows fed up 
the rivers where nobody dwelt, and home again at night. This 
hasty, unadvised memorandum W. H. interprets of bounds set to our 
town by the sachems ; but he would set no bounds to our cattle, but 
up the streams so far as they branched or run, so far all the meadows, 
and at last all the uplands, must be drawn into this accidental cour- 
tesy, and yet, upon no consideration given, nor the sachem's knowl- 
edge or hand, nor witnesses, nor date, nor for what term of time 
this kindness should continue. 

'• Second, in my testimony, I have declared that Miantinomo hav- 
ing set such short bounds (because of the Indians) upon my motion, 
payments were given by us to Alexander and Philip, and the Nar- 
raganset sachems, near two hundred and fifty pounds, in their pay, 
for inland enlargements, accoiding to leave granted us by the 
General Court upon our petition. This after purchase and satisfac- 
tion to all claimers, W. Harris puts a rotten title upon it, and calls 
it confirmation, a confirmation of the title and grant of up streams 
zcithot/t limits ; but all the sachems and Indians, when they heard of 
such an interpretation, they cried ccmmoohin, lying and stealing, as 
such a cheat as stunk in their pagan nostrils. 

" Honored Sirs, let me now add to my testimony, a list of several 
persons which the right and disposing of all or considerable part of 
these Narragansets, and Coweset. and Nipmuck lands, &c. 

'• First. The colony of Connecticut, by the King's grant and char- 
ter, by the late wars, wherein they were honorably assistant. 

'' Second. The colony of Plymouth, by virtue of Tacommaicon's 
surrender of his person and lands to their protection, and I have seen 
a letter from the present Governor Winslow, to Mr. Richard Smith, 
about the matter. 

" Third. The colony of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, 
by grant from his Majesty and confirmation from his Majesty's com- 
missioners, who called these lands the King's Province, and com- 
mitted the ordering of it to this colony, until his Majesty further 
order. \ 

" Fourth. Many eminent gentlemen of the Massachusetts and 
other colonies, claim by a mortgage and forfeiture of all lands belong- 
ing to Narraganset. 

'• Fifth. Our honored Governor, Mr. Arnold, and divers with him, 
are out of a round sum of money and cost, about a purchase from 
Tacum.manan. 

'• Sixth. The like claim was and is made by Mr. John Brown, 
and Mr. Thomas Willet, honored gentlemen and their successors, 

35* 



410 APPENDIX. 

* * *■ from purchase with Tacummanan, and I have seen their 
deeds, and Col. Nichols his confirmation of them, under hand and 
seal, in the name of the King's Majesty. 

" Seventh. Wm. Harris pleads up streams witJiout limits, and 
confirmation from the other sachems of the up streams, <^-c. 

'■ Eighth. Mishuntatuk men claim by purchase from Indians by 
possession, buildings, &lc. * * * * [worn out and oblit.] * * * 

"Ninth. Captain Hubbard and some others, of Hingham * * * 
by purchase from the Indians. 

" Tenth. John Tours, of Hingham, by three purchases from In- 
dians. 

" Eleventh. William Vaughan, of Newport, and others, by Indian 
purchase 

[The next following No. is 13 : there is no 12.] 

" Thirteenth. Randall, of Scituate,* and "White, of Taunton, and 
others, by purchase from Indians. 

" Fourteenth. Edward Inman, of Providence, by purchase from the 
natives. 

" Fifteenth. The town of Warwick, who challenge twenty miles, 
about part of which. Will. Harris contending with them, it is said, 
was the first occasion of W. Har. falling in love with this his 
monstrous Diana uj) streams ivithout limits, that so he might antedate 
and prevent (as he speaks) the blades of Warwick. 

" Sixteenth. The town of Providence, by virtue of Canonicus' 
and Miantinomo's grant renewed to me again and again, viz. of as 
large a plantation and accommodation as any town in the country 
of New-England. It is known what favor God pleased to give me 
with old Canonicus, (though at a dear-bought rate) so that I had 
what I would (so that I observed my times of moderation ;) but two 
or three envious and ungrateful souls among us cried out, What is 
R. Williams .'' We will have the sachem come and set our bounds 
for us; which he did, and (because of his Indians round about us) 
so sudden and so short, that we were forced to petition to our Gen- 
eral Court for enlargement. 

" Honored Sirs, there be other claims, and therefore I presume 
your wisdoms will send forth your proclamations to all tlie colonies, 
that all the claims may come in before your next meeting ; and Oh 
that it would please the Most High to move the colonies' hearts to 
empower you, and move your hearts to be willing, (being honora- 
bly rewarded) and the hearts of the claimers to acquiesce and rest in 
your determination. And Oh let not the colonies of Connecticut 
and Rhode-Island to be offended, if I humbly beseech them, for 
God's sake, for the King's sake, for the country of New-England's 
sake, and for their own souls' and selves' and posterity's sakes, to 
prevent any more complaints and clamors to the King's Majesty, 
and agree to submit their differences to the wisdoms of such solemn 
commissioners chosen out of the whole country. I know there are 
objections, but also know that love to God, love to the country and 
posterity, v/ill conquer greater matters, and I believe the King's 

* Tlip SciUiate here menUoned, iiuiit be in MassachusetLs, as Iheie was no town of 
that name in Rhode-Island till 1730. 



APPENDIX. 411 

Majesty, himself, will give us thanks for sparing him and his hon- 
orable Council from being troubled with us. 

" Honored gentlemen, if his Majesty and honorable Council knew 
how against all law of England, Wm. Harris thus affects New and 
Old England, viz. that a vast country should be purcliased, and yet 
be but a poor courtesy from one sachem, who understood no such 
thing, nor they that begged it of him, who had not, nor asked any 
consideration for it, who was not desired to set his hand to it, nor 
did ; nor are there the hands of witnesses, but the parties them- 
selves, nor no date, nor term of time, for the use of feeding 
cows, up streams without limits, and yet these words, {up strcains 
withoyt Ihnits) by a sudden and unwarj' hand so written, must be 
the ground of W. Har. this raising a fire about these tliirty years 
unquenchable. If his Majesty and Council knew how many of 
his good subjects are claimers and competitors to these lands and 
meadows up the streams of Pawtuxet and Pawtucket, though only one 
comes thus clamoring to him, to cheat all the rest. If Ins Majesty 
and Council knew this confirmation W. H. talks of what a grand 
cheat it is, stinking in the nostrils of all Indians, who subscribed to 
and only confirmed only such bounds as were iformerly given us, 
and W. Harris clamors that they confirmed Miantinomo's grant of 
up streams without limits, a thing which they abhor to hear of, and 
(amonst others) was one great occasion of their late great burning 
and slaughtering of us." * * * * 



'• J\''arraganset, IQth June. 1682 {^ut vuJgo.) 
'■ I testify, as in the presence of the all-making and all-seeing 
God, that about fifty years since, I coming into this Narraganset 
country, I found a great contest between three sachems, two (to wit, 
Canonicus and Miantinomo) were against Ousamaquin, on Ply- 
mouth side, I was forced to travel between them three, to pacify, to 
satisfy all their and their dependents' spirits of my honest intentions 
to live peaceably by them. I testify, that it was the general and 
constant declaration, that Canonicus his father had three sons, 
whereof Canonicus was the heir, and his youngest brother's son, 
Miantinomo, (because of youth.) was his marshal and executioner, 
and did nothing without his uncle Canonicus' consent ; and there- 
fore I declare to posterity, that were it not for the favor God gave 
me with Canonicus, none of these parts, no, not Rhode-Island, had 
been purchased or obtained, for I never got any thing out of Canon- 
icus but by gift. I also profess, that, very inquisitive of what 
the title or denomination Narraganset should come, I heard that 
Narraganset was so named from a little island between Puttiquom- 
scut and Musquomacuk on the sea and fresh water side. I went on 
purpose to see it ; and about the place called Sugar-Loaf Hill, I 
saw it, and was within a pole of it. but could not learn Avhy it was 
called Narraganset. I had learnt, that the Massachusetts was 
called so, from the Blue Hills, a little island thereabout ; and Ca- 
nonicus' father and ancestors, living in those southern parts, trans- 
ferred and brought their authority and name into those northern 
parts, all along by the sea-side, as appears by the great destruction 
of wood all along near the sea-side ; and I desire posterity to see 
the gracious hand of the Most High, (in whose hands are all hearts) 



412 APPENDIX. 

that when the hearts of my countrymen and friends and brethren 
failed me, his infinite wisdom and merits stirred up the barbarous 
heart of Canonicus to love me as his son to his last gasp, by which 
means I had not only Miantinomo and all the lowest sachems my 
friends, but Ousamaquin also, who, because of my great friendship 
with him at Plymouth, and the authority of Canonicus, consented 
freely, being also well gratified by me, to the Governor Winthrop 
and my enjoyment of Prudence, yea of Providence itself, and all 
the other lands 1 procured of Canonicus which were upon the 
point, and in eifect whatsoever I desired of him ; and I never de- 
nied him or Miantinomo whatever they desired of me as to goods or 
gifts or use of my boats or pinnace, and the travels of my own per- 
son, day and night, which, though men know not, nor care to know, 
yet the all-seeing Eye hath seen it, and his all-powerful hand hath 
helped me. Blessed be his holy name to eternity. 

ROGER WILLIAMS." 

" September 28th, 1704. I then, being at the house of Mr. Na- 
thaniel Coddington, there being presented with this written paper, 
which I attest, upon oath, to be my father's own hand writing. 

JOSEPH WILLIAMS, Assistant:' 
" February 11th, 1705. True copy of the original, placed to rec- 
ord, and examined per me. 

"WESTON CLARKE, Recorder:' 



Note D. p. 180. 

[From Hazard's State Papers, vol. i.] 
Report of Arbitrators at Providence, containing proposals for a 
form of government : 

" Providence, the 27th of the 5th month, > 
in the year (so called) 1C40. 5 
" We, Robert Coles, Chad Browne, William Harris, and John 
Warren, being freely chosen by the consent of our loving friends 
and neighbors, the inhabitants of this town of Providence, having 
many differences amongst us, they being freely willing, and also 
bound themselves to stand to our arbitration, in all differences 
amongst us, to rest contented in our determination, being so be- 
trusted, we have seriously and carefully endeavored to weigh and 
consider all these differences, being desirous to bring to unity and 
peace, although our abilities are far short in the due examination of 
such weighty things, yet so far as we conceive in laying all things 
together, we have gone the fairest and the equallest way to produce 
our peace. 

" I. Agreed. We have, with one consent, agreed, that in the 
parting those particular proprieties which some of our friends and 
neighbors have in Pawtuxet from the general common of our town 
of Providence, to run upon a straight line upon a fresh spring, be- 
ing in the gully at the head of that cove, running by that point of 
land called Sassafras, unto the town of Mashapaug, to an oak tree 
standing near unto the corn-field, being at this time the nearest 



APPENDIX. 413 

corn-field unto Pawtuxet, the oak tree having four marks with an 
axe^ till some other landmark be set for a certain bound. Also wo 
agree, that if any meadow ground lying and joining to that mead- 
ow that borders upon the river of Pawtuxet, come within the afore- 
said line, which will not come within a straight line from lono- cove 
to the marked tree, then for that meadow to belong to Pawtuxet, 
and so beyond the town of Mashapaug from the oak tree between 
the two fresh rivers Pawtuxet and Wanasquatucket, of an even 
distance. 

'' II. Agreed. We have with one consent agreed that for the dis- 
posing of those lands that shall be disposed, belonging to this town of 
Providence, to be in the whole inhabitants by the choice of five men 
for general disposal, to be betrusted with disposal of lands and also 
of the town's stock, and all general tilings, and not to receive in 
any in six days as townsmen, but first to give the inhabitants notice 
to consider if any have just cause to show against the receiving of 
him, as you can apprehend, and to receive none but such as sub- 
scribe to this our determination. Also we agree, that if any of our 
neighbors do apprehend himself wronged by these or any of these 
five disposers, that at the general town meeting he may have a 
trial. 

'^ Also, we agree for the town to choose, beside the other five 
men, one or more to keep record of all things belonging to the town 
and lying in common. 

^' We agree, as formerly hath been the liberties of the town, so 
still to hold forth liberty of conscience. 

" III. Agreed, that after many considerations and consultations 
of our own State and also of other States abroad, in way of govern- 
ment, we apprehend no way so suitable to our condition as govern- 
ment by way of arbitration. But if men agree themselves by arbi- 
tration, no State we know of disallows that, neither do we. But if 
men refuse that which is but common humanity between man and 
man, then to compel such unreasonable persons to a reasonable way, 
we agree that the five disposers shall have power to compel him 
either to choose two men himself, or if he refuse, for them to choose 
two men to arbitrate his cause, and if these four men chosen by 
every party do end the cause, then to see their determination per- 
formed, and the faultive to pay the arbitrators for their time spent 
in it. But if these four men do not end it, then for the five dispos- 
ers to choose three men to put an end to it. And for the certainty 
hereof we agree the major part of the five disposers to choose the 
three men, and the major part of the three men to end the cause, 
having power from the five disposers, by a note under their hand, 
to perform it ; and the faultive not agreeing in the first to pay the 
charge of the last, and for the arbitrators to follow no employment 
until the cause be ended, without consent of the whole that have 
to do with the cause. 

'• Instance. In the first arbitration, the offender may offer rea- 
sonable terms of peace, and the offended may exact upon him, and 
refuse and trouble men beyond reasonable satisfaction ; so for the 
last arbitrators to judge where the fault was, in not agreeing in the 
first, to pay the charge in the last. 

"IV. Agreed, that if any person damnify any man, cither in 



414 APPENDIX. 

goods or good name, and the person offended follow not the cause 
upon the offender, that if any person give notice to the five dispos- 
ers, they shall call the party delinquent to answer by arbitration. 
, " Instance. Thus, if any person abuse another in person or 
goods, may be for peace sake a man will at present put it up, and it 
may so be resolve to revenge : therefore, for the peace of the State, 
the disposers are to look to it in the first place. 

" V. Agreed, for all the whole inhabitants to combine ourselves 
to assist any man in the pursuit of any party delinquent, with all 
our best endeavors to attack him ; but if any man raise a hubbub, 
and there be no just cause, then for the party that raised the hub- 
bub to satisfy men for their time lost in it. 

" VI. Agreed, that if any man have a difference with any of the 
five disposers, which cannot be deferred till general meeting of the 
town, then he may have the clerk call the town together at his 
for a trial. 

'^ Instance. It may be a man may be to depart the land, or to a 
far part of the land, or his estate may lie upon a speedy trial, or the 
like case may fall out. 

" VII. Agreed, that the town, by five men, shall give every man 
a deed of all his lands lying within the bounds of the plantation to 
hold it by for after ages. 

" VIII. Agreed, that the five disposers shall, from the date here- 
of, meet every month day upon general things, and at the quarter 
day to yield a new choice, and give up their old accounts. 

" IX. Agreed, that the clerk shall call the five disposers together 
at the month day, and the general town together every quarter, to 
meet upon general occasions, from the date hereof. 

"X. Agreed, that the clerk is to receive for every cause that 
comes to the town for a trial, 4d. ; for making each deed, 12d. ; and 
to give up the book to the town at the year's end, and yield to a 
new choice. 

*' XL Agreed, that all acts of disposal on both sides to stand 

since the difference. 

'* XII. Agreed, that every man who hath not paid in his purchase 
money tor his plantation, shall make up his IO5. to be 305. equal 
with the first purchases 3 and for all that are received townsmen 
hereafter to pay the like sum of money to the town stock. 

" These being those things we have generally concluded on for 
our peace, we desiring our loving friends to receive as our absolute 
determination, laying ourselves down as subject to it." 



Note E. page 198 

The first Charter, copied from 2 His. Coll. ix. pp. 185-8. 

" Whereas, by an ordinance of the Lords and Commons, now as- 
sembled in Parliament, bearing date the second day of November, 
Anno Domini 1643, Robert, Earl of Warwick, is constituted, and 
ordained governor in chief, and lord high admiral of all those islands 
and other plantations inhabited or planted by, or belonging to any 
his Majesty the King of England's subjects, (or which hereafter 



APPENDIX. 415 

may be inhabited and planted by, or belong to them) within the 
bounds, and upon the coasts of America: 

"And whereas the said Lords have thought fit and thereby ordained 
that Philip Earl of Pembroke, Edward Earl of Manchester, William 
Viscount, Say and Seal, Philip Lord Wharton, John Lord Rolle, 
members of the House of Peers ; Sir Gilbert Gerrard, Baronet, Sir 
Arthur Haslerig, Baronet, Sir Henry Vane, jr. Knight, Sir Benja- 
min Rudyard, Knight, John Pym, Oliver Cromwell, Dennis Bond, 
Miles Corbet, Cornelius Holland, Samuel Vassal, John Rolle, and 
William Spurstow, Esqrs. members of the House of Commons, 
should be commissioners to join in aid and assistance with the said 
Earl. And Avhereas, for the better government and defence, it is 
thereby ordained, that the aforesaid governor and commissioners, or 
the greater number of them, shall have power, and authority, from 
time to time, to nominate, appoint, and constitute all such subordi- 
nate governors, counsellors, commanders, officers, and agents, as 
they shall judge to be best affected, and most fit, and serviceable for 
the said islands and plantations ; and to provide for, order and dispose 
all things, which they shall, from time to time, find most advantage- 
ous for the said plantations ; and for the better security of the owners 
and inhabitants thereof, to assign, ratify, and confirm, so much of 
their afore-mentioned authority and power, and in such manner, 
and to such persons, as they shall judge to be fit for the better gov- 
erning and preserving of the said plantations and islands, from open 
violences and private disturbances and distractions. And whereas 
there is a tract of land in the continent of America aforesaid, called 
by the name of Narraganset Bay, bordering northward and north- 
east on the patent of Massachusetts, east and south-east on Plymouth 
patent, south on the ocean, and on the west and northwest by the 
Indians called Nahigganneucks, alias Narragansets, the whole tract 
extending about twenty-five English miles, unto the Pequod river 
and country. 

" And whereas, well affected and industrious English inhabitants, 
of the towns of Providence, Portsmouth and Newport, in the tract 
aforesaid, have adventured to make a nearer neighborhood and 
society with the great body of tJie Narragansets, which may, in time, 
by the blessing of God upon their endeavors, lay a sure foundation 
of happiness to all America ; and have also purchased, and are 
purchasing of and amongst the natives, some other places, which 
may be convenient, both for plantations, and also for building of 
ships, supply of pipe staves, and other merchandise. 

" And whereas the said English have represented their desire to 
the said Earl, and commissioners, to have their hopeful beginnings 
approved and confirmed, by granting unto them a free charter of 
civil incorporation and government ; that they may order and gov- 
ern their plantation in such a manner, as to maintain justice and 
peace, both among themselves, and towards all men with whom 
they shall have to do. In due consideration of the said premises, 
the said Robert, Earl of Warwick, governor in chief, and lord high 
admiral of the said plantations, and the greater number of the said 
commissioners, whose names and seals are hereunder written and 
subjoined, out of a desire to encourage the good beginnings of the 
said planters, do, by the authority of the aforesaid ordinance of the 



416 APPENDIX. 

Lords and Commons, give, grant, and confirm, to the aforesaid in- 
habitants of the towns of Providence, Portsmouth and Newport, a 
free and absolute charter of incorporation, to be known by the name 
of The Incorporation of Providence Plantations, in the JS^arraganset 
Bay, in JYeic- Engl and. Together with full power and authority, 
to rule themselves, and such others as shall hereafter inhabit within 
any part of the said tract of land, by such a form of civil govern- 
ment, as by voluntary consent of all, or the greater part of them, 
they shall find most suitable to their estate and condition; and, for 
that end, to make and ordain such civil laws and constitutions, and 
to inflict such punishments upon transgressors, and for execution 
thereof, so to place, and displace officers of justice, as they, or the 
greatest part of them, shall by free consent agree unto. Provided, 
nevertheless, that the said laws, constitutions, and punishments, for 
the civil government of the said plantations, be conformable to the 
laws of England, so far as the nature and constitution of the place 
will admit. And always reserving to the said Earl, and commis- 
sioners, and their successors, power and authority for to dispose 
the general government of that, as it stands in relation to the rest 
of the plantations in America, as they shall conceive, from time to 
time, most conducing to the general good of the said plantations, 
the honor of his Majesty, and the service of the State. And the 
said Earl and commissioners do further authorize, that the aforesaid 
inhabitants, for the better transacting of their public affairs, to make 
and use a public seal, as the known seal of the Providence Planta- 
tions, in the Narraganset Bay, in New-England. In testimony 
whereof, the said Robert, Earl of Warwick, and commissioners, have 
hereunto set their hands and seals, the fourteenth day of March, in 
the nineteenth year of our sovereign lord King Charles, and in the 
year of our Lord God, 1643. 

Robert Warwick, H. Vane, 

Philip Pembroke, Sam. Vassal, 

Say and Seal, John Rolle, 

P. Wharton, Miles Corbet, 

Arthur Haslerig, W. Spurstow.* " 

Cor. Holland, 



Note F. page 226. 

The following document, written, evidently, by Mr. Williams, is 
an appropriate introduction to the charter of the town of Providence. 

* It has been alleged, with a view to lessen I\Ir. Williams' claim to the honor of being 
the chief agent in establishing liberty of conscience in Rhode-Island, that the preceding 
charter contains no provision for the protection of religious liberty. But it may be re- 
plied, that the instrument conveyed full jiower to establish any form of government, and 
enact any laws, which the inhabitants might deem proper, provided that they were not 
repugnant to the laws of England. The charter is in very general terms. It prescribes 
no mode of civil government, and omits, of course, any reference to religious affairs. 
The principles of Mr. William? and his friends were well known to the gentlemen who 
signed the charier. Mr. Williams could desire nothing more than entire liberty to the 
inhabitants to regulate the civil and ecclesiastical concerns of the colony according to 
their own pleasure. 



APPENDIX. 417 

" To our loving and well-betrusted friends and neighbors, Gregory 
Dexter, William Wickenden, Thomas OIney, Robert Williams, 
Richard Waterman, Roger Williams, William Field, John Greene, 
John Smith, John Shippett. 

" We, the greater part of the inhabitants of this plantation of 
Providence, having orderly chosen you at our town meeting this 
16th of the 3d mo. 1647, to appear for us, at the General Court of 
this colony, to be held at Portsmouth, on Rhode-Island, upon the 
18th of this inst. month, desiring the Lord's providence for your 
safe arrival there, we all voluntarily assenting, do hereby give you 
full power and authority as followeth : First, to act and vote for us 
respectively or otherwise, as if we ourselves were in person, for the 
settling of this General Court for the present, and for the composing 
of it into any figure for the future, as cause shall require. Secondly, 
to act and vote for us as aforesaid in the choice of all general officers, 
as need shall require. Thirdly, if the General Court shall consist 
of but ten men for each town, then you are to act accordingly for 
this town ; and if the General Court shall be reduced into a fewer 
number, which, for divers considerations, we conceive may be for the 
best, then we give you full power to choose from among yourselves, 
such a number of our loving neighbors as shall answer the same 
figure, unto whom, being orderly chosen by you, we do give you 
power to transfer this our commission, giving of them full power to 
act and vote for us, the inhabitants of this plantation, in all general 
affairs, and for the settling of the island in peace and union, and 
for all matters that shall concern this particular town, desiring a 
careful respect unto these ensuing instructions. But, if the Court 
shall consist often of each town, then our desires are, that this our 
commission, v/ith the ensuing instructions, may remain entire in 
your hands. 

'• First. That we may have a true copy of our charter assigned 
unto us by the General Court, for the proper use of our plantation. 

'' Secondly. We do voluntarily and are freely willing to receive 
and be governed by the laws of England, together with the way of 
administration of them, so far as the nature and constitution of this 
plantation will admit, desiring, so far as possibly may be, to hold a 
correspondency with the whole colony in that model that hath been 
lately shown unto us by our worthy friends of the island, if the 
General Court shall complete and confirm the same, or any other 
model as the General Court shall agree upon according to our 
charter. 

" Tliirdly. We desire to have full power and authority to transact 
all our home affairs, to try all manner of causes or cases, and to 
execute all manner of executions entirely within ourselves, except- 
ing such cases and executions as the colony shall be pleased to re- 
serve to general trials and executions. 

*• Fourthly. We desire to have full power and autliority to choose, 
ordain, authorize and confirm, all our particular town officers, and 
also that the said officers shall be responsible unto our particular 
town, and that there may be no intermixture of general and partic- 
ular officers, but that all may know their bounds and limits. 

'' Fifthly. We desire to have an exact and orderly way open tor 
appeals unto General Courts, that so, if any shall be' justly grieved 
36 



418 APPENDIX. 

at any sentence passed or otherwise, he or they may make their 
lawful charge for relief there. 

" Lastly. Whereas, it was hinted in that which our worthy 
friends unto us, that each town should have a charter of 

civil incorporation, apart, for the transacting of particular affairs, if 
the Court shall proceed so far as to agitate and order the same, then 
we give you full power, on our behalf, to move and procure any 
thing beside these instructions, that in your wisdom you conceive 
may tend unto the general peace or union of the colony and our 
own particular liberties and privileges, provided you do all, or the 
Tnost of you, unanimo2isly agree therein, and always reserving our 
equal votes and equal privileges in the general. 

'' Thus betrusting you with the premises, we commit you unto 
the protection and direction of the Almighty, wishing you a com- 
fortable voyage, a happy success, and a safe return unto us again. 
" Your thankful friends and neighbors, 

'' ROGER WILLIAMS, 

Moderator." 

Charter of the Toioyi of Providence. 

"Whereas, by virtue of a free and absolute charter of civil incor- 
poration, granted to the free inhabitants of this colony of Providence, 
by the Right Honorable Robert, Earl of Warwick, Governor in 
Chief, with the rest of the honorable commoners, bearing date the 
14th day of March, anno. 1643, giving and granting full powers and 
authority unto the said inhabitants to govern themselves and such 
others as shall come among them, as also to make, constitute and 
ordain such laws, orders and constitutions, and to inflict such pun- 
ishments and penalties, as is conformable to the laws of England, so 
near as the nature and constitution of the place will admit, and 
which may best suit the estate and condition thereof, and whereas 
the said towns of Providence, Portsmouth, Newport and Warwick 
are far remote each from other, whereby so often and free intercourse 
of help in deciding of difference and trying of causes and the like 
cannot easily and at all times be had and procured of that kind is 
requisite ; therefore, upon the petition and humble request of the 
freemen of the town of Providence, exhibited unto this present ses- 
sion of General Assembly, wherein they desire freedom and liberty 
to incorporate themselves into a body politic, and we, the said As- 
sembly, having duly weighed and seriously considered the premises, 
and being willing and ready to provide for the ease and liberty of the 
people, have thought fit, and by the authority aforesaid and by these 
presents, do give, grant and confirm unto the free inhabitants of the 
town of Providence, a free and absolute charter of civil incorporation 
and government, to be known by the Incorporation of Providence 
Plantation, in the Narraganset Bay, in New-England, together with 
full power and authority to govern and rule themselves, and such 
others, as shall hereafter inhabit within any part of the said Planta- 
tion, by such a form of civil government, as by voluntary consent of 
all, or the greater part of them, shall be found most suitable unto 
their estate and condition, and to that end to make and ordain such 
civil orders and constitutions, to inflict such punishments upon 



APPENDIX. 419 

transgressors, and for execution thereof, and of the common statute 
laws of the colony, agreed unto, and the penalties, and so many of 
them as are not annexed already unto the colony Court of Trials, so 
to place and displace officers of justice, as they, or the greater part 
of them, shall, by one consent, agree unto. Provided, nevertheless, 
that the said laws, constitutions, and punishments, for tlie civil gov- 
ernment of the said Plantation, be conformable to the laws of Eng- 
land, so far as the nature and constitution of the place will admit, 
yet always reserving to the aforesaid General Assembly, power and 
authority so to dispose the general government of that plantantion, 
as it stands in reference to the rest of the plantation, as they shall 
conceive, from time to time, most conducing to the general good of 
the said plantation. And we, the said Assembly, do further author- 
ize the aforesaid inhabitants to elect and engage such aforesaid officers 
upon the first second day of June annually. And moreover, we 
authorize the said inhabitants, for the better transacting of their pub- 
lic affiiirs, to make and use a public seal, as the known seal of Prov- 
idence Plantation, in the Narraganset Bay, in New-England. In 
testimony whereof, we, the said General Assembly, have hereunto 
set our hands and seal, the 14th of March, Anno 1648. 

'' JOHN WARNER, 

Clerk of the Assembly. 
Portsmouth y 

'' The foregoing is as correct a copy of the charter of the town of 
Providence, as could be made from that on parchment in the Town 
Clerk's office, taken this day, by and with the assistance of a copy, 
in the hand- writing of Joseph Brown, son of Henry, and brother to 
Richard Brown, who v/as proprietors' clerk. The parchment orig- 
inal not now being in all parts legible, the said copy I judge to be 
taken more than sixty years ago, and was of great use in decypher- 
ing that in the office. 

" MOSES BROWN. 

20th 12th mo. 1810." 



Note G. page 319. 

Charter of Rhode- Island, granted by King Charles II. on the 8tk 
of July, 1663. 

« Quintadecima pars Patentiuin Aniio Regni Regis Caioli Secuadi Quintodecimo. 

" Charles the Second, by the grace of God, &c., to all to whom 
these presents shall come, greeting : Whereas we have been inform- 
ed, by the petition of our trusty and well-beloved subjects, John 
Clarke, on the behalf of Benedict Arnold, William Brenton, Wil- 
liam Coddington, Nicholas Easton, William Boulston, John Porter, 
John Smith, Samuel Gorton, John Weekes, Roger Williams, Thomas 
Olney, Gregory Dexter, John Coggeshall, Joseph Clarke, Randall 
Houlden, John Greene, John Roome, Samuel Wildbore, William 
Field, James Barker, Richard Tew, Thomas Harris, and William 
Dyre, and the rest of the purchasers and free inhabitants of our 
island, called Rhode-Island, and the rest of the colony of Providence 



420 APPENDIX. 

Plantations, in the Narraganset Bay, in New-England, in America : 
That they, pursuing with peace and loyal minds their sober, serious 
and religious intentions, of godly edifying tliemselves and one 
another in the holy Christian faith and worship, as they were per- 
suaded, together with the gaining over and conversion of the poor 
ignorant Indian natives, in those parts of America, to the sincere 
profession and obedience of the same faith and worship, did not 
only, by the consent and good encouragement of our royal progeni- 
tors, transport themselves out of this kingdom of England, into 
America; but also, since their arrival there, after their first settle- 
ment amongst other of our subjects in those parts, for the avoiding 
of discord, and these many evils which were likely to ensue upon 
those, our subjects, not being able to bear, in those remote parts, 
their different apprehensions in religious concernments : and in 
pursuance of the aforesaid ends, did once again leave their desirable 
stations and habitations, and, with excessive labor and travail, hazard 
and charge, did transplant themselves into the midst of the Indian 
natives, who, as we are informed, are the most potent princes and 
people of all that country ; where, by the good providences of God 
(from whom the plantations have taken their name) upon their labor 
and industry, they have not only been preserved to admiration, but 
have increased and prospered, and are seized and possessed, by 
purchase and consent of said natives, to their full content, of such 
lands, islands, rivers, harbors, and roads, as are very convenient, 
both for plantations and also for building of ships, supplying of pipe- 
staves and other merchandise, which lie very commodious, in many 
respects, for commerce, and to accommodate our southern planta- 
tions, and may much advance the trade of this our realm, and greatly 
enlarge the territories thereof; they having, by near neighborhood 
to, and friendly society with, the great body of Narraganset Indians, 
given them encouragement, of their own accord, to subject them- 
selves, their people and land unto us ; whereby, as is hoped, there 
may, in time, by the blessing of God upon their endeavors, be laid 
a sure foundation of happiness to all America : 

" And whereaS; in their humble address, they have freely de- 
clared, that it is much on their hearts (if they be permitted) to hold 
forth a lively experiment, that a most flourishing civil state may 
stand, and best be maintained, and that among our English subjects, 
with a full liberty in religious concernments ; and that true piety, 
rightly grounded upon Gospel principles, will give the best and 
greatest security to sovereignty, and will lay in the hearts of men 
the strongest obligations to true loyalty : 

" Now know ye, that we, being willing to encourage the hopeful 
undertaking of our said loyal and loving subjects, and to secure 
them in the free exercise and enjoyment of all the civil and reli- 
gious rights appertaining to them, as our loving subjects, and to 
preserve unto them that liberty in the true Christian faith and 
worship of God, which they have sought, with so much travail, and 
with peaceable minds and loyal subjection to our royal progenitors 
and ourselves, to enjoy ; and because some of the people and in- 
habitants of the same colony cannot, in their private opinion, con- 
form to the public exercise of religion, according to the liturgy, 
form and ceremonies of the Church of England, to take or subscrile 



APPENDIX. 421 

the oaths and articles made and established in that behalf; and for 
that the same, by reason of the remote distances of those plncu's. will, 
as we hope, be no breach of the unity and uniformity estal)lislie(l in 
this nation, have therefore thought fit, and do hereby publish, grant, 
ordain, and declare, that our royal will and pleasure is : 

" That no person, within the said colony, at any time hereafter, 
shall be anywise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in ques- 
tion, for any differences in opinion in matters of religion, who do not 
actually disturb the civil peace of our said colony ; but that all and 
every person and persons may, from time to time, and at all times 
hereafter, freely and fully have and enjoy his own and their judg- 
ments and consciences, in matters of religious concernments, through- 
out the tract of land hereafter mentioned, they behaving themselves 
peaceably and quietly, and not using this liberty to licentiousness 
and profaneness, nor to tJie civil injury or outward disturbance of 
others; any law, statute, or clause therein contained, or to 1 e con- 
tained, usage, or custom of this realm, to the contrary hereof, in any- 
wise notwithstanding. 

'^ And tliat they may be in the better capacity to defend them- 
selves, m their just rights and liberties, against all the enemies of 
the Christian faith, and others, in all respects, we have further 
thought fit, and at the humble petition of the persons aforesaid, are 
graciously pleased to declare, 

'• That they shall have and enjoy the benefit of our late act of in- 
demnity and free pardon, as the rest of our subjects in our other 
dominions and territories have, and to create or make them a body 
politic or corporate, wdth the powers and privileges hereinafter men- 
tioned. And, accorxlingly, our will and pleasure is, and of our 
especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, we have or- 
dained, constituted, and declared, and, by these presents, for us, our 
heirs, and successors, do ordain, constitute, and declare, that they, 
the said William Brenton, William Coddington, Nicholas Easton, 
Benedict Arnold, William Boulston, John Porter, Samuel Gorton, 
John Smith, John Weekes, Roger Williams, Thomas Olney, Greg- 
ory Dexter, John Coggeshall, Joseph Clarke, Randall Houlden, John 
Greene, John Roome, William Dyre, Samuel Wildbore, Richard 
Tew, William Field, Thomas Harris, James Barker, Rains- 
borrow, Williams, and John Nickson, and all such others as 

are now, or hereafter shall be, admitted free of the company and 
society of our colony of Providence Plantations, in the Narraganset 
Bay, in New-England, shall be, from time to time, and forever here- 
after, a body corporate and politic, in fact and name, by the name of 
The Governor and Company of the English Colony of Rhode- Island 
and Providence Plantations, in JVeiD-England, in .America ; and that by 
the same name they and their successors shall and may have per- 
petual succession, and shall and may be persons able and capable in 
the law to sue and be sued, to plead and be impleaded, to answer 
and to be answered unto, to defend and to be defended, in all and 
singular suits, causes, quarrels, matters, actions, and things, of what 
kind or nature soever; and also to have, take, possess, acquire, and 
purchase lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or any goods or chat- 
tels, and the same to lease, grant, demise, alien, bargain, sell, and 

36* 



422 APPENDIX. 

dispose of, at their own will and pleasure, as other our liege people 
of this our realm of England, or any corporation or body politic with- 
in the same, may lawfully do. 

''And further, that they, the said Governor and company, and their 
successors, shall and may, forever hereafter, have a common seal, to 
serve and use for all matters, causes, things, and affairs whatsoever, 
of them and their successors : and the same seal to alter, change, 
break, and make new, from time to time, at their will and pleasure, 
as they shall think fit. 

"And further, we will and ordain, and, by these presents, for us, 
our heirs and successors, declare and appoint, that, for the better 
ordering and managing of the affairs and business of the said com- 
pany and their successors, there shall be one Governor, one Deputy 
Governor, and ten Assistants, to be from time to time constituted, 
elected and chosen, out of the freemen of the said company, for the 
time being, in such manner and form as is hereafter in these presents 
expressed ; which said officers shall apply themselves to take care 
for the best disposing and ordering of the general business and affairs 
of and concerning the lands and hereditaments hereinafter mentioned 
to be granted, and the plantation thereof, and the government of the 
people there. 

" And, for the better execution of our royal pleasure herein, wc do, 
for us, our heirs and successors, assign, name, constitute, and ap- 
point the aforesaid Benedict Arnold to be the first and present Gov- 
ernor of the said company , and the said William Brenton to be the 
Deputy Governor; and the said William Boulston, John Porter, 
Roger Williams, Thomas Olney, John Smith, John Greene, John 
Coggeshall, James Barker, William Field, and Joseph Clarke, to be 
the ten present Assistants of the said company, to continue in the 
said several offices respectively, until the first Wednesday which 
shall be in the month of May now next coming. 

" And further, we will, and, by these presents, for us, our heirs 
and successors, do ordain and grant, that the Governor of the said 
company, for the time being, or, in his absence, by occasion of sick- 
ness or otherwise, by his leave or permission, the Deputy Governor, 
for the time being, shall and may, from time to time, upon all occa- 
sions, give orders for the assembling of the said company, and call- 
ing them together to consult and advise of the business and afiairs of 
the said company ; and that forever heieafter, twice in every year, 
that is to say, on every first Wednesday in the month of May, and 
on every last Wednesday in October, or oftener, in case it shall be 
requisite, the Assistants, and such of the freemen of the said com- 
pany, not exceeding six persons for Newport, four persons for each 
of the respective towns of Providence, Portsmouth, and Warwick, 
and two persons for each other place, town, or city, who shall be, 
from time to time, thereunto elected or deputed, by the major part 
of the freemen of the respective towns or places, for which they 
shall be so elected or deputed, shall have a general meeting or as- 
sembly, then and there to consult, advise, and determine, in and 
about the affairs and business of tlie said company and plantations. 

" And further, we do, of our especial grace, certain knowledge, 
and mere motion, give and grant unto the said Governor and com- 



APPENDIX. 423 

pany of the English colony of Rhode-Island and Providence Planta- 
tions, in New-England, in America, and their successors, that the 
Governor, or, in his absence, or by his permission, the Deputy Gov- 
ernor of the said company, for the time being, the Assistants and 
such of the freemen of the said company, as siiall be so aforesaid 
elected or deputed, or so many of them as shall be present at such 
meeting or assembly, as aforesaid, shall be called the General As- 
sembly : and that they, or the greatest part of them then present, 
(whereof the Governor, or Deputy Governor, and six of the Assist- 
ants at least, to be seven,) shall have, and have hereby given and 
granted unto them, full power and authority, from time to time, and 
at all times hereafter, to appoint, alter, and change such days, times, 
and places of meeting and general assembly, as they shall think fit; 
and to choose, nominate, and appoint such and so many persons as 
they shall think fit, and shall be willing to accept the same, to be 
free of the said company and body politic, and them into the same 
to admit; and to elect and constitute such offices and officers, and 
to grant such needful commissions as they shall think fit and requi- 
site, for ordering, managing and despatching of the affairs of the 
said Governor and company and their successors ; and from time to 
time to make, ordain, constitute, and repeal, such laws, statutes, or- 
ders and ordinances, forms and ceremonies of government and ma- 
gistracy, as to them shall seem meet, for the good and welfare of 
the said company, and for the government and ordering of the lands 
and hereditaments herein after mentioned to be granted, and of the 
people that do, or at any time hereafter shall, inhabit or be within 
the same ; so as such laws, ordinances, and constitutions, so made, 
be not contrary and repugnant unto, but (as near as may be) agree- 
able to the laws of this our realm of England, considering the na- 
ture and constitution of the place and people there ; and also to ap- 
point, order, and direct, erect and settle such places and courts of 
jurisdiction, for hearing and determining of all actions, cases, mat- 
ters, and things, happening within the said colony and plantation, 
which shall be in dispute and depending there, as they shall think 
fit; and also .to distinguish and set forth the several names and titles, 
duties, powers, and limits, of each court, office, and officer, superior 
and inferior ; and also to contrive and appoint such forms of oaths 
and attestations, not repugnant, but (as near as may be) agreeable, 
as aforesaid, to the lav/s and statutes of this our realm, as are con- 
venient and requisite, with respect to the due adm nistration of 
justice, and due execution and discharge of all offices and places of 
trust, by the persons that shall be therein concerned ; and also to 
regulate and order the way and manner of all elections to ofliceg 
and places of trust, and to prescribe, limit, and distinguish tlie num- 
ber and bounds of all places, towns, and cities, within the limits and 
bounds hereinafter mentioned, and not herein particularly named, 
that have or shall have the power of electing and sending of free- 
men to the said General Assembly ; and also to order, direct, and 
authorize the imposing of lawful and reasonable fines, mulcts, im- 
prisonment, and executing other punishments, pecuniary and cor- 
poral, upon offenders and delinquents, according to the course of 
other corporations, within this our kingdom of England ; and again, 
to alter, revoke, annul, or pardon, under their common seal, or oth- 



424 APPENDIX. 

erwise, such fines, mulcts, imprisonments, sentences, judgments, 
and condemnations, as shall be thought fit; and to direct, rule, or- 
der, and dispose of all other matters and things, and particularly 
that which relates to the making of purchases of the native Indians, 
as to them shall seem meet ;. whereby our said people and inhabit- 
ants in the said plantations may be so religiously, peaceably, and 
civily governed, as that, by their good life and orderly conversation, 
they may win and invite the native Indians of the country to the 
knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Saviour of man- 
kind; willing, commanding, and by these presents, for us, our 
heirs and successors, ordaining and appointing, that all such laws, 
statutes, orders and ordinances, instructions, impositions, and di- 
rections, as shall be so made by the Governor, Deputy, Assistants, 
and freemen, or such number of them as aforesaid, and published in 
writing, under their common seal, shall be carefully and duly ob- 
served, kept, perlbrmed, and put in execution, according to the true 
intent and meaning of the same. And these our letters patent, or 
the duplicate of exemplification thereof, shall be, to all and every 
such officers, superior or inferior, from time to time, for the putting 
of the same orders, laws, statutes, ordinances, instructions, and di- 
rections, in due execution, against us, our heirs and successors, a 
sufficient warrant and discharge. 

'' And further, our will and pleasure is, and we do hereby, for us, 
our heirs and successors, establish and ordain, that, yearly, once in 
the year, forever hereafter, namely, the aforesaid Wednesday in 
May, and at the town of Newport, or elsewhere, if urgent occasion 
do require, the Governor, Deputy Governor, and Assistants of the 
said company, and other oflicers of the said company, or such of 
them as the General Assembly shall think fit, shall be in the said 
General Court or Assembly, to be held from that day or time, newly 
chosen for the year ensuing, by the greater part of the said company 
for the time being, as shall be then there present. And if it shall 
happen that the present Governor, Deputy Governor, and Assist- 
ants, by these presents appointed, or any such as shall hereafter be 
newly chosen into their respective rooms, or any of them, or any 
other of the officers of the said company, shall die, or be removed 
from his or their several offices or places, before the said general 
day of election, (whom we do hereby declare, for a misdemeanor or 
default, to be removable by the Governor, Assistants and company, 
or such greater part of them, in any of the said public Courts to be 
assembled as aforesaid.) that then, and in every such case, it shall 
and may be lawful to and for the said Governor, Deputy Governor, 
Assistants, and Company aforesaid, or such greater part of them, so 
to be assembled, as is aforesaid, in any of their assemblies, to pro- 
ceed to a new election of one or more of their company, in the room 
or place, rooms or places, of such officer or officers, so dying, or re- 
moved, according to their directions. And innnediately upon and 
after such election or elections made of such Governor, Deputy 
Governor, Assistant, or Assistants, or any other officer of the said 
company, in manner and form aforesaid, the authority, office and 
power, before given to the former Governor, Deputy Governor, and 
other officer or officers so removed, in whose stead and place new 
shall be chosen, shall, as to him and them, and every of them re- 



APPENDIX. 425 

spectlvely, cease and determine : Provided, always, and our will 
and pleasure is, that as well such as are by these presents appointed 
to be the present Governor, Deputy Governor, and Assistants of 
the said company, as those which shall succeed them, and all other 
officers to be appointed and chosen as aforesaid, shall, before the 
undertaking the execution of the said offices and places respectively, 
give their solemn engagement, by oath or otherwise, for the due 
and faithful performance of their duties, in their several offices and 
places, before such person or persons as are by these presents here- 
after appointed to take and receive the same : that is to say, the 
said Benedict Arnold, who is herein before nominated and appointed 
the present Governor of the said Company, shall give the aforesaid 
engagement before William Brenton, or any two of the said Assist- 
ants of the said Company, unto whom we do, by these presents, give 
full power and authority to require and receive the same : and the 
said William Brenton, who is hereby before nominated and appoint- 
ed the present Deputy Governor of the said Company, shall give 
the aforesaid engagement before the said Benedict Arnold, or any 
two of the Assistants of the said Company, unto whom we do, by 
these presents, give full power and authority to require and receive 
the same : and the said William Boulston, John Porter, Roger Wil- 
liams, Thomas Olney, John Smith, John Greene, John Coggeshall, 
James Barker, William Field, and Joseph Clarke, who are herein 
before nominated and appointed the present Assistants of the Com- 
pany, shall give the said engagement to their offices and places re- 
spectively belonging, before the said Benedict Arnold and William 
Brenton, or one of them, to whom respectively we do hereby give 
full power and authority to require, administer, or receive the same : 
and further, our will and pleasure is, that all and every other future 
Governor, or Deputy Governor, to be elected and chosen by virtue 
of these presents, shall give the said engagement before two or more 
of the said Assistants of the said Company, for the time being, unto 
whom we do, by these presents, give full power and authority to 
require, administer, or receive the same : and the said Assistants, 
and every of them, and all and every other officer or officers, to be 
hereafter elected and chosen by virtue of these presents, from time 
to time, shall give the like engagements to their offices and places 
respectively belonging, before the Governor, or Deputy Governor, 
for the time being, unto which said Governor, or Deputy Governor, 
we do, by these presents, give full power and authority to require, 
administer, or receive the same accordingly. 

" And we do likewise, for us, our heirs and successors, give and 
grant unto the said Governor and Company, and their successors, 
by these presents, that for the more peaceably and orderly govern- 
ment of the said plantations, it shall and maybe lawful for the Gov- 
ernor, Deputy Governor, Assistants, and all other officers and min- 
isters of the said Company, in the administration of justice, and ex- 
ercise of government, and the said plantations, to use, exercise, and 
put in execution, such methods, orders, rules, and directions, (not 
being contrary and repugnant to the laws and statutes of this our 
realm,) as have been heretofore given, used, and accustomed, in 
such cases respectively, to be put in practice, until at the next, or 
some other General Assembly, especial provision shall be made in 
the cases aforesaid. 



426 APPENDIX. 

" And we do further, for us, our heirs and successors, give and 
grant unto the said Governor and Company, and their successors, 
by these presents, that it shall and may be lawful to and for the said 
Governor, or, in his absence, the Deputy Governor, and major part 
of the said Assistants for the time being, at any time, when the said 
General Assembly is not sitting, to nominate, appoint and consti- 
tute such and so many commanders, governors, and military officers, 
as to them shall seem requisite, for the leading, conducting, and 
training up the inhabitants of the said plantations in martial affairs, 
and for the defence and safeguard of the said plantations ; that it 
shall and may be lawful to and for all and every such commander, 
governor, and military officer, that shall be so as aforesaid, or by 
the Governor, or, in his absence, the Deputy Governor, and six of 
the Assistants, and major part of the freemen of said Company, 
present at any general assemblies, nominated, appointed, and con- 
stituted, according to the tenor of his and their respective commis- 
sions and directions, to assemble, exercise in arms, marshal, array, 
and put in warlike posture, the inhabitants of said colony, for their 
especial defence and safety ; and to lead and conduct the said in- 
habitants, and to encounter, repulse, and resist, by force of arms, 
as well by sea as by land, to kill, slay, and destroy, by all fitting 
ways, enterprises, and means whatsoever, all and every such person 
or persons as shall, at any time hereafter, attempt or enterprise the 
destruction, invasion, detriment, or annoyance of the said inhabit- 
ants or plantations ; and to use and exercise the law martial, in such 
cases only as occasion shall necessarily require ; and to take and 
surprise, by all ways and means whatsoever, all and every such 
person or persons, with their ship, or ships, armor, ammunition, or 
other goods of such persons, as shall, in hostile manner, invade, or 
attempt the defeating of the said plantation, or the hurt of the said 
company and inhabitants; and, upon just cause, to invade and de- 
stroy the native Indians, or other enemies of the said colony, 

" Nevertheless, our will and pleasure is, and we do hereby declare 
to the rest of our colonies in New-England, that it shall not be law- 
ful for this our said colony of Rhode-Island and Providence Planta- 
tions, in America, in New-England, to invade the natives inhabiting 
within the bounds and limits of the said colonies, without the knowl- 
edge and consent of the said other colonies. And it is hereby de- 
clared, that it shall not be lawful to or for the rest of the colonies to 
invade or molest the native Indians, or any other inhabitants, inhab- 
iting within the bounds or limits hereafter mentioned, (they having 
subjected themselves unto us, and being by us taken into our special 
protection,) without the knowledge and consent of the Governor and 
Company of our colony of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations. 

" Also, our will and pleasure is, and we do hereby declare unto all 
Christian kings, princes, and states, that, if any person, who shall 
hereafter be of the said Company or Plantation, or any other, by 
appointment of the said Governor and Company, for the time being, 
shall, at any time or times hereafter, rob or spoil, by sea or land, or 
do any hurt, or unlawful hostility, to any of the subjects of us, our 
heirs and successors, or to any of the subjects of any prince or state, 
being then in league with us, our heirs and successors, upon com- 



APPENDIX. 427 

plaint of such injury done to any such prince or state, or their sub- 
jects, we, our heirs and successors, will make open proclamation, 
within any part of our realm of England, fit for that purpose, that 
the person or persons committing any such robbery or spoil, shall, 
within the time limited by such proclamation, make full restitution 
or satisfaction of all such injuries done or committed, so as the said 
prince, or others, so complaining, may be fully satisfied and con- 
tented ; and if the said person or persons, who shall commit any 
such robbery or spoil, shall not make satisfaction accordingly, 
within such time so to be limited, that then we, our heirs and suc- 
cessors, will put such person or persons out of our allegiance and 
protection ; and, that then it shall and maybe lawful and free for all 
princes or others to prosecute with hostility such offenders, and 
every of them, their and every of their procurers, aiders, alettcrs, 
and counsellors, in that behalf. 

'• Provided, also, and our express will and pleasure is, and we do, 
by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, ordain and ap- 
point, that these presents shall not in any manner hinder any of our 
loving subjects whatsoever from using and exercising the trade of 
fishing upon the coast of New-England, in America; but that they, 
and every or any of thern, shall have full and free power and liberty 
to continue and use the trade of fishing upon the said coast ; in any 
of the seas thereunto adjoining, or any arms of the sea, or salt water 
rivers and creeks, where they have been accustomed to fish ; and to 
build and set upon the waste land, belonging to the said colony and 
plantations, such wharves, stages, and work-houses, as shall be 
necessary for the salting, drying, and keeping of their fish, to be 
taken or gotten upon that coast. 

" And further, for the encouragement of the inhabitants of our said 
colony of Providence Plantations to set upon the business of taking 
whales, it shall be lawful for them, or any of them, having struck a 
v/hale, dubertus, or other great fish, it or them to pursue unto that 
coast, or into any bay, river, cove, creek, or shore, belonging thereto, 
and it or them upon the said coast, or in the said bay, river, cove, 
creek, or shore, belonging thereto, to kill and order for the best ad- 
vantage, without molestation, they making no wilful waste or spoil; 
any thing in these presents contained, or any other matter or thing, 
to the contrary notwithstanding. 

" And further, also, we are graciously pleased, and do hereby de- 
clare, that if any of the inhabitants of our said colony do set upon 
the planting of vineyards, (the soil and climate both seeming natu- 
rally to concur to the production of vines,) or be industrious in the 
discovery of fishing banks, in or about the said colony, Vv'e will, from 
time to time, give and allov/ all due and fitting encouragement 
therein, as to others in cases of a like nature. 

'' And further, of our more ample grace, certain knowledge, and 
mere motion, we have given and granted, and by these presents, for 
us, our heirs and successors, do give and grant unto the said Gover- 
nor and Company of the English colony of Rhode-Island and Provi- 
dence Plantations, in the Narraganset Bay, in New-England, in 
America, and to every inhabitant there, and to every person and 
persons trading thither, and to every such person or persons as are 



428 APPENDIX. 

or shall be free of the said colony, full power and authority, from 
time to time, and at all times hereafter, to take, ship, transport, and 
carry away, out of any of our realms and dominions, for and towards 
the plantation and defence of the said colony, such and so many of 
our loving subjects and strangers, as shall or will, willingly, accom- 
pany, them in and to their said colony and plantations, except such 
person or persons as are or shall be therein restrained by us, our 
heirs and successors, or any law or statute of this realm : and also to 
ship and transport all and all manner of goods, chattels, merchan- 
dise, and other things whatsoever, that are or shall be useful, or 
necessary for the said plantations, and defence thereof, and usually 
transported, and not prohibited by any law or statute of this our 
realm ; yielding and paying unto us, our heirs and successors, such 
duties, customs, and subsidies, as are or ought to be paid or payable 
for the same. 

'' And further, our will and pleasure is, and we do, for us, our heirs 
and successors, ordain, declare, and grant, unto the said Governor 
and Company, and their successors, that all and every the subjects 
of us, our heirs and successors, which are already planted and settled 
within our said colony of Providence Plantations, or which shall 
hereafter go to inhabit within the said colony, and all and every of 
their children which have been born there, or which shall happen 
hereafter to be born there, or on the sea, going thither, or returning 
from thence, shall have and enjoy all liberties and immunities of 
free and natural subjects, within any of the dominions of us, our 
heirs and successors, to all intents, constructions and purposes 
whatsoever, as if they and every of them were born within the 
realm of England. 

''And further, know ye, that we, of our more abundant grace, 
certain knowledge, and mere motion, have given, granted, and con- 
firmed, and, by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, do give, 
grant, and confirm unto the said Governor and Company, and their 
successors, all that part of our dominions, in New-England, in 
America, containing the Nahantick and Nanhyganset alias Narra- 
ganset Bay, and countries and parts adjacent, bounded on the Avest 
or westerly, to the middle or channel of a river there, commonly 
called and known by the name of Pawcatuck alias Pawcawtuck 
river ; and so, along the said river, as the greater or middle stream 
thereof stretches or lies up into the north country northward unto 
the head thereof, and from thence, by a straight line drawn due 
north, until it meet with the south line of the Massachusetts colony ; 
and on the north or northerly by the aforesaid south or southerly 
line of the Massachusetts colony or plantation, and extending to- 
wards the east or eastwardly three English miles, to the east and 
northeast of the most eastern and north-eastern parts of the afore- 
said Narraganset Bay, as the said Bay lieth or extendeth itself from 
the ocean, on the south or southwardly, unto the mouth of the river 
Vv^hich runneth towards the town of Providence ; and from thence, 
along the eastwardly side or bank of the said river, (higher called 
by the name of Seacunck) up to the falls called Patucket Falls, be- 
ing the most westwardly line of Plymouth colony ; and so, from the 
said falls, in a straiHit line, due north, until it meet with the afore- 



APPENDIX. 429 

said line of the Massachusetts colony, and bounded on the south by 
the ocean, and in particular the lands belonging to the town of 
Providence, Pawtuxet, Warwick, Misquammacock, alias Pawcatuck, 
and the rest upon the main land, in the tract aforesaid, together 
with Rhode-Island, Block-Island, and all the rest of the islands and 
banks in Narraganset bay, and bordering upon the coast of the tract 
aforesaid, (Fisher's Island only excepted) together with all firm 
lands, soils, grounds, havens, ports, rivers, waters, fishings, mines 
royal, and all other mines, minerals, precious stones, quarries, 
woods, wood-grounds, rocks, slates, and all and singular other com- 
modities, jurisdictions, royalties, privileges, franchises, pre-eminen- 
,ces, and hereditaments whatsoever, within the said tract, bounds, 
lands, and islands aforesaid, to them or any of them belonging, or 
in any wise appertaining ; to have and to hold the same, unto the 
said Governor and company, and their successors forever, upon 
trust, for the use and benefit of themselves and their associates, free- 
men of the said colony, their heirs and assigns; — to be holden of 
us, our heirs and successors, as of the manor of East Greenwich, in 
our county of Kent, in free and common soccage, and not in capite, 
nor by knight's service ; yielding and paying therefor, to vis, our 
heirs and successors, only the fifth part of all the ore of gold and 
silver which, from time to time, and at all times hereafter, shall be 
there gotten, had, or obtained, in lieu and satisfaction of all services, 
duties, fines, forfeitures, made or to be made, claims, or demands 
whatsoever, to be to us, our heirs, or successors, therefore or there- 
about rendered, made, or paid ; any grant or clause in a late grant 
to the Governor and Company of Connecticut colony, in America, 
to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding ; the aforesaid 
Pawcatuck river having been yielded, after much debate, for the 
fixed and certain bounds between these our said colonies, by the 
agents thereof, v/ho have also agreed, that the said Pawcatuck river 
shall also be called alias Narogancett or Narraganset river, and to 
prevent future disputes, that othervv'ise might arise thereby, forever 
hereafter shall be construed, deemed, and taken to be the Narragan- 
set river, in ovir late grant to Connecticut colon}'-, mentioned as the 
easterly bounds of that colony. 

'• And further, our Vvdll and pleasure is, that, in all matters of pub- 
lic controversies, which may fall out between our colony of Provi- 
dence Plantations, to make their appeal therein to us, our heirs and 
successors, for redress in such cases, within this our realm of Eng- 
land ; and that it shall be lawful to and for the inhabitants of the 
said colony of Providence Plantations, vv^ithout let or molestation, to 
pass and repass with freedom, into and through the rest of the Eng- 
lish colonies, upon their lawful and civil occasions, and to converse 
and hold commerce and trade with such of the inhabitants of our 
other English colonies, as shall be willing to admit them thereunto, 
they behaving themselves peaceably among them, any act, clause, or 
sentence, in any of the said colonies provided, or that shall be pro- 
vided, to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. 

'• And lastly, we do, for us, our heirs and successors, ordain and 

grant unto the said Governor and Company, and their successors, 

by these presents, that these cur letters patent shall be firm, good, 

effectual, aud available, in all things in the law, to all intents, con- 

37 



430 APPENDIX. 

structions, and purposes whatsoever, according to our true intent 
and meaning herein before declared, and shall be construed, reputed, 
and adjudged, in all cases most favorable on the behalf, and for the 
best benefit and behoof of the said Governor and Company, and their 
successors, although express mention, &c. In witness, &c. 
" Witness, &c. Per Ipsum Regem." 



Note H. page 355. 

The following letter from that indefatigable antiqviary, the late 
Theodore Foster, Esq. contains some interesting information, con- 
cerning the residence of Roger Williams, the time of his death, and 
the place where he was buried. It is copied from the Rhode- 
Island American, of July 16, 1819 : 

" To Mr. Williams Thayer, Jr. 

" Foster, R. I. May 21, 1819. 
" Dear Sir, 

" I have, this afternoon, had the pleasure of receiving your polite 
letter of yesterday, requesting information relative to your worthy 
and distinguished ancestor, Mr. Roger Williams, the Founder of our 
State, and for some years its Chief Magistrate and patron. He was 
chosen President, Sept. 13, 16.54, after his return from his second 
successful agency with the Long Parliament in England. In that 
office he was continued, by repeated elections, until May 19, 1657, 
when he was succeeded in it by Benedict Arnold. 

*' In answer to your queries, '* At what time did Roger Williams 
depart this life .'' Where did he dwell in Providence .'' and where was 
he buried.'"' lean only say, that I never met with any record, 
printed or manuscript, which I thought more correct, as to the time 
of his death, than the account given by Mr. Backus, in his History 
of the Baptists, vol. i. p. 515. Governor Hutchinson, in his Plistory 
of Massachusetts, vol. i. p. 43, says, that he died in the year 1682, 
forty-eight years after his banishment. Now, adding forty-eight 
years to the year of his removal from Salem to Providence, which, 
undoubtedly, was in 1636, it makes the year 1684 as the year of his 
death, though Governor Hutchinson, by mistake, says it was in 1682. 
From Mr. Williams' writings, it appears that he was born in 1599 ; 
and, as he died in the eighty-fourth year of his age, it will make the 
year 1683, as stated by Mr. Backus, that in which his death hap- 
pened. 

" It appears of record, that on the 16th day of January, 1683, Mr. 
Williams, with others, signed a settlement of a controversy which 
had long existed between some of the people of Providence and 
some of those of Pawtuxet, relative to the Pawtuxet purchase ; and 
that, on the 10th day of May following, John Thornton, in a letter 
to Mr. Hubbard, mentioned his death. So he must have died be- 
tween January 16 and May 10, 1683. 

" The freemen of Providence, in town meeting, July 15, 1771, ap- 
pointed a committee, viz. Stephen Hopkins, Amos Atwell, and Da- 



APPENDIX. 431 

rius Sessions, Esqrs. to draft an inscription for a monument, which 
it was then intended to erect to his memory. In their vote on that 
occasion, Mr. Williams was called " the Founder of the Town and 
Colonij." The committee did nothing, and the business has slept 
from that time. In the summer of that year, (forty-eight years ago) 
when much was said respecting a monument for liim, though noth- 
ing could be agreed on, his grave was shown to me, near the east 
end of the house lot now owned by Mr. Dorr. The foot grave-stone 
was then gone, and the top of the other broken off, so that only the 
lower part appeared, without any inscription. There were several 
other grave-stones near his, in memory of some of the Ashton fam- 
ily, who were connected with Mr. Williams, on which the inscrip- 
tions were entire. Thinking it a duty to preserve some knowledge 
of the place, where was deposited the dust of the founder of our 
State, I have repeatedly, of late years, sought for those monuments, 
without being able to find any traces of them ; though I think I can, 
within a rod or two, sliow where they were placed, so that, on dig- 
ging the ground, the graves may, perhaps, be discovered. 

" There is no doubt but that Mr. Williams lived, the latter part of 
his life, upon the estate whereon he. was buried, which was called 
the Crawford estate, after the connection of the Crawford and Fen- 
ner families, by the marriage of Gideon Crawford with Freelove 
Fenner, daughter of Arthur Fenner, April 13, 1687; which Arthur 
Fenner, July 31, 1688, gave to his three daughters, Freelove, Beth- 
iah and Phebe, thirty-one acres of land, <• in Providence Neck," all 
which became the property of Mr. Crawford, who married Freelove 
Fenner, and I believe was exchanged or negotiated for Mr, Williams' 
estate, near the spring.* 

As Mr. Williams' grave and others before mentioned were on that 
estate, I applied, on the 12th of May, 1813, to Mrs. Mary Tripe, a 
descendant of the said Gideon Crawford, then in the seventy-second 
year of her age, for information respecting them. She was a woman 
of intelligence, good sense and information, and careful of what she 

*"Mr. Williams sold from his estate a lot, forty-eight feet wide on the street, to Mr. 
Gabriel Bernon, a very respectable French gentleman, of great property, and sincere 
religion, who came fiom Rochelle, France, where he had suffered much, and had been 
inip'iisoned two yeais, on account of his religion, which led Mr. Williams gregtly to 
esteem and respect him. He was born at Rochelle, April 6, 1644; lived ten years 
at Newport and Narraganset, and died in Providence, February 1,1736, in the ninety- 
second year of his age. He had ten children by his first wife, eight of whom, with 
herself, came with him to this State. He had four children by his second wife, Mary 
Harris. He was buried under the old Episcopal church, and was the ancestor of 
many respectable families, in various parts of the State, in which are great numbers 
of his posterity, connected with the names of Coddington, Helme, Whipple, Crawford, 
Jenckes, Allen, Tourtellot, kc. 

"The lot thus sold to Mr, Bernon contained the famous spring where Mr. Williarai 
landed, when he came to Providence in a canoe, with Thomas Angell, in l63t;. Gov- 
ernor Hutchinson says: "The inhabitants have a veneration for a spring, which runs 
from the hill into the river, above the great bridge. The sight of this spring caused 
bim to stop his canoe, and land there." Mass. His, vol. ii. p. 41. 

" This is the same lot where Mr, Nehemiah Dodge is now building a large brick 
house, near the stone Episcopal church, a few feet eastward of the spring, of which 
there is now no appearance, otheiwise than at the bottom of his well, of a consid- 
erable depth, from which it finds a covered outlet to the river; an instance, among 
?i thousand others, of the great alteration in the town, since its first settlement, 



432 APPENDIX. 

said. She informed me that your ancestor, Roger Williams, lived in 
a house which was on the east side of the main street, a little south 
of the Episcopal church, the foundation whereof then remained, 
which she showed me, within sight of her house, and which I be- 
lieve is also now removed, as I saw nothing of it, on looking for it, 
the last time I was in Providence. So transitory are all things per- 
taining to humanity ! She told me there was no doubt that Mr. 
Williams was buried at the place which I have mentioned ; that she 
had always been told so ; and that she remembered seeing fruit trees 
growing there, when she was a girl ; that her father once owned 
that and the estate where Moses Brown, Esq. now hves ; and that 
there was a gang-way, fourteen feet wide, south of Mrs. Tripe's 
house, given by Mr. Williams, to go to his spring, originally laid out 
from river to river, near which gang-way his house stood. 

<< I have an original letter, in the hand-writing of Mr. Williams, 
to the freemen of the town of Providence, dated " 11, 3, 60," [May 
11, 16G0] claiming personal estate of John Clowson, who had been 
murdered by Waumaion, an Indian, on the 4th day of the preceding 
January, containing additional proof that Mr. Williams then lived 
near the spring before mentioned. 

" I can give no satisfactory information relative to the other que- 
ries in your letter, but what may be derived from the records of 
Providence ; nor have I any recollection of any circumstance which 
indicated that Mr. Williams left a will. 

" It gives me pleasure to be able to furnish useful information to 
any of my friends, from documents in my possession. Though in 
haste, I have written diffusely, in answer to your letter. So far as 
it goes, I believe the information it contains is correct. That it may 
in some degree, answer your expectations, and the purpose for 
which you wanted it, is the wish of 

" Yours, respectfully, 

THEODORE FOSTER." 

The following extracts from a letter, inserted in the American, of 
July 20, 1819, deserve to be inserted, as illustrative of the subject 
before us : 

*•' Providence, July 17, 1819. 
" Messrs. Goddard & Knowles, 

*' Observing, in your paper of yesterday, a letter from the Hon. 
Theodore Foster, respecting Roger Williams, the founder of this 
State, I am induced to lay before the public the following facts, com- 
municated to me by the late Capt. Nathaniel Packard, of this town, 
about the year 1808. About fifty years since, there Avas some stir 
about erecting a monument to commemorate that distinguished di- 
vine, civilian and statesman, and there was a difference of opinion as 
to the place of his burial. Capt. Packard was then absent, but had 
he been present, he could have pointed out the very spot where 
Roger Williams' house stood, and where he was buried. When he 
was about ten years old, one of the descendants of Roger Williams 
was buried at the family burying-ground,on the lot right back of the 
house of Sullivan Dorr, Esq. Those who dug the grave, dug directly 
upon the foot of the coffin, which the people there present told him 



APPENDIX. 433 

was Roger Williams'. They let him down into tlie new grave, and 
he saw the bones in the coffin, whicli was not wholly decayed, and 
the bones had a long, mossy substance upon tliem. Roger Williams 
was born in 1599, and died in lGd3. Captain Packard was son of 
Fearnot Packard, who lived in a small house, standing a little south 
of the house of Philip Allen, Esq. and about fifty feet south of the 
noted spring. In this house Captain Packard was born, in 17:30, 
and died in 1809, being seventy-nine years old. lie was born forty- 
seven years after Williams died. So if he was ten years old when 
Williams' descendant was buried, it was fifty-seven years after Wil- 
liams died. 

'• As the people at the funeral of Williams' descendant told Cap- 
tain Packard that Williams was buried in the grave dug upon, there 
can be no doubt that Roger Williams -was buried in the lot back of 
Mr. Dorr's house, in his own family burying-ground, where I my- 
self have seen stones to a number of the graves, within twenty 
years, which have since been removed. But, though the stones are 
not to be found, yet I cannot but venerate the spot where, I have no 
doubt, the dust of one of the greatest and best men that ever lived 
mingled with its mother earth. 

"Mrs. Nabby Packard, widow of Captain Packard, who is eighty- 
five years old, told me, this day, that her late husband had often 
mentioned the above facts to her ; and his daughter, Miss Mary 
Packard, states, that her father often told her the same. 

"As to where Roger Williams' dwelling-house stood. Captain Na- 
thaniel Packard told me, that when he was a boy, he used to play in 
a cellar, which had a large peach-tree in it, wliich cellar, he said, 
was situate on a lot back of the house built by Thomas Owen, father 
of the late Hon. Daniel Owen, afterwards owned by Levi Whipple, 
and now owned by the heirs of the late Simeon H. Olney, directly 
north of the house owned by Ezra Hubbard, and near where an out- 
building now stands. The people, at that time, called it Roger 
"Williams' cellar. Mrs. Nabby Packard, Nathaniel Packard's widow, 
told me this day, that she came to live where she now lives, when 
she was eighteen years old, which was sixty-seven j^ears ago, and 
that she well remembers the cellar, and that it was called Roger Wil- 
liams' cellar. The site of the house w^as a little east of Roger Wil- 
liams' spring, and situate directly on the road laid out from said 
spring, to the upper ferry, (now Central Bridge.) The spring is 
called Roger Williams' spring, and he owned the land all around it, 
being the very place where he sat upon the rock, and conversed 
with the Indians. The above facts, derived from Captain N. Pack- 
ard, his widow and daughter, are indubitable evidences, that his 
house was where it is above stated to have been, and that he was 
buried in the lot back of Mr. Dorr's house." 

It is hoped, that the prosperous city of Providence will not, much 
longer, endure the reproach of permitting her founder's grave to re- 
main without any memorial to indicate the spot. It is already too 
late, perhaps, to ascertain the precise place where his ashes lie, but it 
may be found, within a few feet. The ground around it ought to be 

3S 



434 APPENDIX. 

obtained by the city, a handsome monument erected, and the whole 
enclosed within a permanent iron fence, and adorned with trees, 
shrubbery, &c. It would thus form an interesting spot, which the 
citizen would visit with interest, and which the stranger would seek 
as one of the principal points of attraction. It has been proposed to 
erect a monument in some other part of the city ; but it would be ab- 
surd to place it any where else than on the spot where his bones are 
interred. Tlie spot itself is interesting, because he owned it, and 
was buried there. It is surprising that his children ever allowed it 
to be sold. 

In regard to the family of Mr. Williams, little is now known. Even 
his lineal descendants seem to have a very scanty knowledge of their 
ancestor. A few facts have been collected, though I cannot vouch 
for their accuracy. 

His wife, it is supposed, survived him, but when and where she 
died, we know not. 

It is nearly certain, that he left no will. He probably had very lit- 
tle, if any property, to bequeath. 

He had six children : 

1. Mary, born at Plymouth, the first week in August, 1633. 
Whether she was married or not, is uncertain. In Mr. Williams' 
book against George Fox, he speaks of his daughter Hart, as residing 
in Newport. Mary may have married a person of this name. 

2. Freeborn, born at Salem, the end of October, 1635. Of her, 
nothing further is known tome. 

3. Providence, born at Providence, the end of September, 1638. 
He died unmarried, in Newport [another account says, in Provi- 
dence] March, 1685-6. 

4. Marcy, born July 15, 1640. She was married to Resolved 
Waterman, of Warwick, by whom she had four sons and one daugh- 
ter. After his death, she was married to Samuel Winsor, of Provi- 
dence, by whom she had two sons and one daughter. After his 

death, she was married to Rhodes, of Pawtuxet, by whom she 

had several children. 

5. Daniel, born February 15,1641-2. He married Rebecca Power, 
widow of Nicholas Power. He died May 14, 1712. He had five sons, 
Peleg, Roger, Daniel, Joseph, Providence. Peleg had four sons, 
Peleg, Robert, Silas, Timothy ; and two daughters, who were mar- 
ried to Daniel Fisk and John Fisk. Roger had two daughters, one 
of whom was married to Jonathan Tourtellot, and the other to David 
Thayer. Daniel died unmarried. Joseph had two sons, Benoni and 
Goliah. Providence had one daughter, Elizabeth. 

6. Joseph, born the beginning of December, 1643. He married 
Lydia Olney, December 17, 1669. He had three sons, Joseph, 
Thomas and James. Joseph had one son, Jeremiah, and eight daugh- 
ters, who were married to Francis Atwood, William Randall, Joseph 
Randall, John Randall, William Dyer, Benjamin Potter, Benjamin 
Congdon, John Dyer. Thomas had three sons, Joseph, Thomas 
and John, and several daughters. James had four sons, James, Na- 
thaniel, Joseph and Nathan. 

Joseph Williams lived, for several years, on a farm in Crans- 
ton, three or four miles from Providence, where he died, August 



APPENDIX. 435 

17, 1724, in the eighty-first year of his ago, and was buried in the 
family burying ground, on the farm, where his grave stone now 
stands, with tliis inscription : 

" Here lies the body of Joseph Williams, Esq. son of Roger Wil- 
liams, Esq. who was the first white man that came to Providence. 
He was born 1G44. He died August 17, 1724, in the eighty-first 
year of his age. 

In King Phili[)'s war, he courageously went through, 

And the native Indians he bravely did subdue, 

And now he's gone down to the grave, and he will be no more, 

Until it please Almighty God his body to leslore, 

Into some proper shape, as he thinks fit to be. 

Perhaps like a grain ot wheal, as Paul sets forth, you see. 

{Corinthians, \st book, lotk chapter, 37/A verse.)'' 

His wife died a few days after him, and was buried by his side. 
Her grave-stone bears this inscription : 

'•In memory of Lydia Williams, wife of Joseph Williams, Esq. 
who died September {), 1724, in the eightieth year of her age." 

In the same yard, is the grave of their youngest son. The stone 
has this inscription : 

" Here lies the body of James Williams, son of Joseph Williams 
and Lydia his wife, who was born September 24, 1680, died June 
25, 1757, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. 

lie was of a moderate temper and easy mind, 
He to peace was chiefly inclined 5 
In peace he did live, in peace he \vould be, 
We hope it may last to eternity." 



Note I. p. 389. 

That Mr. Williams ought to be regarded as the founder of the 
State of Rhode-Island, cannot be denied. His settlement of Provi- 
dence, the first town in the State ; his services in procuring the 
cession of the island by the Indians ; his efforts to procure the first 
charter, and his various sacrifices and toils for the w^elfare of the 
whole colony, entitle him to the merit of being considered as the 
founder, though other men, like Mr. Clarke, rendered great and im- 
portant services. Mr. Williams claims this honor, in his letter in- 
serted on page 349 of this volume. 

His principles have steadily prevailed in Rhode-Island, till the 
present hour. No man has ever been molested, on account of his 
religious principles. Gentlemen, of all the existing denominations, 
have been elected magistrates. Mr. Callender said, in 1738 : '• The 
civil state has flourished, as well as if secured by ever so many penal 
laws, and an Inquisition to put them in execution. Our civil ofli- 
cers have been chosen out of every religious society, and the public 
peace has been as well preserved, and the public councils as well 
conducted, as we could have expected, had we been assisted by ever 
so many religious tests." — p. 107. 

In respect to the religious concerns of the colony, it may be said, 
that if they had been such as they have sometimes been represented, 
an argument could not fairly be drawn from them unfriendly to Mr. 



436 APPENDIX. 

Williams' principles. It must be recollected, that intolerance pre- 
vailed in the neighboring colonies, and Rhode-Island was a refuge 
for men of all opinions. There was consequently a great variety of 
sects, all weak, at first, and unable to do much towards the support 
of religion. Rhode-Island thus suffered from the intolerance of her 
neighbors ; for if they had granted the enjoyment of religous liberty 
to their citizens, many who went to Rhode-Island, and created dis- 
turbances there, would have remained in the other colonies. The 
difficulties which arose, in the early part of the history of Rhode- 
Island, are rather proofs of the evils of intolerance in the other 
colonies, than evidences of the injurious tendencies of Mr. Williams' 
doctrines. If all the uneasy and discordant spirits in the other States 
of New-England were driven, by the force of intolerant laws, into 
Massachusetts, she would speedily lose some portion of her high 
character for morality and good order. 

But the state of religion in Rhode-Island has been misrepresented. 
Mr. Callender, nearly a hundred years ago, vindicated the character 
of the State. He said, that there were, in the fourteen towns which 
then composed the state,* thirty religious societies, all of which 
were then supplied with ministers, except probably the meetings of 
Friends. Of these societies, nine were Baptists, nine Friends, five 
Congregationalists, five Episcopalians, and two Sabbatarians.! Mr. 
Callender says, " Thus, notwithstanding all the liberty and indul- 
gence here allowed, and notwithstanding the inhabitants have been 
represented as living without a public worship, and as ungospellized 
plantations, we see there is some form of godliness every where 
maintained." — p. 68. He says, in another place : 

" I take it to have been no dishonor to the colony, that Christians, 
of every denomination, were suffered to lead quiet and peaceable 
lives, without any fines, or punishments for their speculative opin- 
ions, or for using those external forms of worship, they believed God 
had appointed, and would accept. Bigots may call this confusion 
and disorder, and it may be so, according to their poor worldly no- 
tions of religion, and the kingdom of Christ. But the pretended 
order of human authority, assuming the place and prerogatives of 
Jesus Christ, and trampling on the consciences of his subjects, is, as 
Mr. R. Williams most justly calls it, " monstrous disorder." — p. 50. 

" Notwithstanding our constitution left every one to his own lib- 
erty, and his conscience ; and notwithstanding the variety of opinions 
that were entertained, and notwithstanding some may have con- 

* These towns were, in the order of their settlement or incorporation: Piovidence, 
1636; Portsmouth, 16S7-8; Newport, 1638-9; Warwick, 1642-3; Westerly, 166.5; 
New Shorehani, 1672 ; East-Greenwich, 1677 ; Jamestown, 1678 ; North-Kingstown, and 
South-Kingstown, 1722 ; Smithfield, Glocester, and Scituate, 1730; Charleslown, 1738. 
In 1730, the whole number of inhahitants in the colony, was 17,935. The towns of 
Bun illville, Cranston, Cumberlanclj Foster, Johnston, North-Providence, Liltle-Oomp- 
ton, iVliddletown, Tiverton, Coventry, West-Greenwich, Exeter, Hopkinton, Richmond, 
Barrington', Bristol, a^d Warren, have been since added, ifiaking th« total number of 
towns thirty-one. Population, in 1830, 97,212. 

t This list shows how unjustly some persons, who have chosen to vilify Rhode-Island, 
have made the Baptists responsible for every thing which was done, or neglected. The 
Baptists have always, perhaps, been more numerous than any other denomination, but they 
have been a minority of the whole community. In 1738, it seems, they h;id but nine, cut 
of thirty religious societies or chuiches. 



APPENDIX. 437 

tracted too great an indifference to any social worship, yet T am well 
assured, there scarce ever was a time, the hundred years past, in 
which there was not a weekly puhlic worship of God, attended' hy 
Christians, on this island, and in the other first towns of the col- 
ony." — p. 51. 

It is believed, that at the present time, there are as many rclio-ious 
societies in Rhode-Island, as in other States, in proportion to the 
population, and that the ministry is as well supported, though it is 
done by the voluntary liberality of the respective societies. Tlio 
state of morality and religion would, it is believed, bear a favorable 
comparison with that in other States. 

But the true test of the effects of Mr. Williams' principles is their 
operation on a large scale. The religious liberty which prevails in 
the United States demonstrates, that religion may be sustained, and 
diffused, without any dependence on the civil power. It is believed, 
that in no other nation on earth, are the principles of Christianity 
so efficacious in their influence on the great mass of the inWbitants; 
in no other country, are revivals of,xeIigion so frequent ; in no other 
country, are there so few crimes. Here we leave the argument. 
May the principles of Roger Williams soon prevail in every land, 
and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord 
and of his Christ. 



1 



FULLER'S WORKS, COMPLETE. 



LINCOLN, EDMANDS «fe CO. have recently published this 
valuable work, in two large octavo volumes, on a fair burgeois typo 
and fine paper, at the very reasonable price of G dollars. The cost 
of the former edition (14 dollars) precluded many students from 
replenishing their libraries; and they are now gratified in being able 
to posses a work so replete with doctrinal arguments and prarticat 
religion. No Christian can read Fuller without having his impulses 
to action quickened — and every student ought to sludij him, if he 
wishes to arm himself against the attempts of every enemy. 

Since this edition has been issued, several perodicals have noticed 
it with full commendation. We have recently given extracts from 
notices in the Boston Recorder, Christian Watchman, &c. — and we 
now make a few extracts from an able review of the work, which 
appeared in the October number of the American Baptist Magazine. 
It was written by the President of a College, at the South, and is 
admired for its elegant and just view of the sentiments of this great 
author. 

He says : — '' This work, in the material and style of execution, is 
highly creditable to the American press. The publishers, in issuing 
this work, have conferred an obligation upon community, and will, 
doubtless, be rewarded in a liberal return of their investment. Mr. 
Fuller was among the few extraordinary men who have ever ap- 
peared in this world. He possessed great vigor of intellect, an un- 
common share of good sense, inflexible integrity, and the most ardent 
love for truth. All his powers, therefore, were early consecrated 
to the service of the church. His mind was turned, even before he 
entered the ministry, to the study of those great truths, which in- 
volve the highest honor of God, and the dearest interests of man. 
These truths he embraced with all the affections of his heart, and 
maintained with wonderfnl acuteness, and by invincible argu- 
ments ; for they were indeed the sheet-anchor of his soul. He pos- 
sessed very clear and consistent views of human depravity, and of 
the grounds of moral obligation. To gain them, however, he had 
to endure heavy trials and severe studies. 

" The grand design of Mr. Fuller, as a writer, was to produce moral 
action. He believed in the divine purpose, that the rest of heaven 
shall be gained through constant vigilance and labor. In this way 
the Christian character is to be formed, and the soul fitted for future 
blessedness. But notwithstanding the necessity of this painful care 
and eflfort, man is much inclined to be heedless and slothful ; and 
this proneness has been strengthened by ingenious and plausible 
theories in religion. Of this truth Mr. Fuller had abundant evi- 
dence. In his life and travels, he witnessed the hyper-calvinistic, 
or antinomian spirit, sweeping over the churches, withering up, like 
the Sirocco's blast, their vital principle, and converting them into 
barren wastes. Nor was the influence of this spirit confined to pro- 
fessors, Its legitimate tendency is, to keep both saints and sinners 
in a state of inaction. For it exalts the former above obligation, 
and sinks the latter below it. This spirit he knew had its origin in 
the false notion, that human apostacy releases sinners from the 



WORKS. 

duties of piety, and that the gospel dispensation is designed to 
render the law useless, and to excuse the people of God from com- 
plying with its requirements. Over these things Mr. Fuller prayed 
and wept. And when he took up his pen, it was his chief purpose 
to correct these errors, and thus to rouse the church from their par- 
alyzing influence. In accomplishing his object, he resorted to no 
unwarranted expedients. He believed that God had provided ade- 
quate agents to sway the soul, and that these are principally three : 
truth, motive, and the influences of th^ Divine Spirit. Truth con- 
vinces the understanding, motive affects the heart, and the Spirit 
overcomes the will. The great cause, he believed, why the means 
of salvation have produced so little effect, is — that their power has 
been greatly weakened by human devices. Truth has been eclipsed, 
conscience stupified, and the heart allured by unscriptural mo- 
tives. The constant aim, therefore, of this eminent man, was to 
disperse the darkness, in which truth was involved, that it might 
shine forth in all its heavenly lustre. He labored to remove from 
the divine law the deadening swathe with which it had been bound, 
by those who feared its edge, that it might act with unobstructed 
force. It has been said of the immortal Butler, that he has done 
more than any other man to restore to conscience her sovereign 
sway in the human soul. So we may say, that Fuller has, probably, 
done more than any other divine, to restore to the law of God, or 
to gospel truth, its sacred dominion in the economy of grace. Truth 
and the voice of conscience are the two great ruling powers in the 
moral world. Hence the well-being of society requires, that they 
should be constantly kept in the clearest light. And that man, who 
is the instrument, in giving these chief elements of power the freest 
action upon the human mind, renders the most important service to 
his fellow-men. 

'' There is another light in which we are anxious the publications 
of Mr. Fuller should be viewed — in their adaptedness to prevent 
two evils, to wliich the Christian world at the present day are pecu- 
liarly exposed. These are, first, losing sight of that mysterious and 
divine agency, on which the success of all their efforts must depend. 
And, second, failing to keep in full view those cardinal truths of 
the gospel, by wliich they must gain and support all their victories 
in the empire of darkness. In every period the church has been 
inclined to forget her dependence on divine influences; but, perhaps, 
never so much so, as in the present. 

'• Though for thirty years we have been conversant with the 
writings of Mr. Fuller, yet we must say, that this revision of them 
has greatly heightened them in our estimation. And viewing them 
in the light Ave do, we cannot but indulge the belief, that they will, 
for ages yet to come, continue to enlighten and bless the church of 
Christ." 

Tliis edition was printed from a London edition, just levised, by Mr. A. G. Fuller, 
who says, in his preface, "In presenting to the public what has long been called lor, 
viz. a complete edition of the woiks of uiy revered father, it is unnecessary to ofTer any 
remarks on the character of the writings, most of which have for many years been before 
the public, and must now be supposed to stand on their own merits. It may, however, 
be proper to state, that the present edition not only contains a great number of valuable 
pieces which had been before unavoidably omitted, but also a portion of original manu- 
script, part of which is woven into the memoir, and part inserted in the last volume." 



in \ ^^n^ 



